Five ways onto a dashboard, and a decision order for choosing.
What each connectivity method requires, what it delivers and what it cannot do — plus the per-machine decision order that produces the cheapest workable answer.
There are five ways a machine on an Indian shop floor ends up on a monitoring dashboard. Most plants use three of them simultaneously, because machine populations are mixed and the right method is a per-machine decision rather than a platform-wide one.
This article compares them on the criteria that matter when you are choosing: what each requires, what it delivers, and what it cannot do.
Compared on what actually decides the choice.
| Method | Requires | Typically delivers | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network read from the control | A reachable control on the plant network | State, cycle timing, counts, alarm presence | Depends on the control generation and options fitted |
| OPC UA | A device or control exposing an OPC UA server | Nominated tags, structured and typed | Not present on most older equipment; needs configuration on both sides |
| MTConnect | An MTConnect adapter or agent for the machine | A standardised read-only stream | Availability varies by machine builder; often an added component |
| Modbus (RTU or TCP) | A PLC, meter or drive exposing registers | Whatever registers you nominate | No semantics — a register is a number until you map it |
| Digital and analogue I/O | Wiring to a gateway | States, counts, sensor values | No controller-level detail; needs an installation slot |
A decision order that works.
The order matters because each step down adds either hardware or installation time. Working top-down produces the cheapest workable answer for each machine rather than a single method imposed across a mixed floor.
A typical Indian machining unit ends up with networked reads on the newer CNCs, Modbus on the energy meters and any PLC-driven equipment, and gateway I/O on the presses and conventional machines. That is not a compromise; it is the correct outcome of applying the decision order above machine by machine.
What matters is that all five methods land in the same record with the same state vocabulary, so a press and a machining centre can be compared without anyone reconciling two systems. A platform that handles only one or two of these methods will cover part of your floor and leave the rest invisible — which is usually where the unmeasured losses are.
Stated plainly, because this is where overclaiming happens.
Network read
Cannot exceed what the control exposes. Options fitted at purchase constrain it years later.
OPC UA and MTConnect
Cannot be added to a machine that has no support for them without a component that provides it. Availability is a fact about your machine, not a preference.
Modbus
Carries no meaning. Register 40001 is a number until somebody maps it, and mapping is where errors enter.
Digital I/O
Gives states and counts, never program names, spindle load or alarm codes. Anyone claiming otherwise is describing a different machine.