SUPERVISORY PROCESS CONTROL AND MANUFACTURING INFORMATION SYSTEM APPLICATION HAVING LAYERED ARCHITECTURE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable changes while suppressing a time for interruption or stop to a minimum in a supervisory process control/manufacturing information system application. SOLUTION: In the application, application components (AC) are distributable to a plurality of networked computer devices in a multi-layered hierarchical system wherein lower layers AC host higher layers AC. Application objects (AO) 105 and 107 are placed at a high level of the architecture and model entities within a process control system. Engine objects (EO) host execution of the AO in a run-time environment. Thus, the AO are not deployed until a host EO with which they are associated have been deployed. The EO are hosted by platform objects (PO). The PO correspond to a physical computer system component for executing the EO and the associated AO. A configuration facility presents a variety of views for showing relationships of the objects of the distributed application. COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT