To equip production facilities for international competition and keep them competitive, data are required to identify optimisation potentials in manufacturing processes. This necessitates the digitalisation of production plants. Numerous approaches exist for equipping even older machines with sensors and digital interfaces in order to collect the needed data. However, the challenges often lie in the fact that the data are not available in uniform formats and that different transmission standards are used, which in turn demands complex software infrastructures for harmonisation. Implementing such infrastructures requires specialised knowledge and consumes substantial personnel and time resources—resources that many SMEs cannot afford.

With the EasyData transfer project, researchers are developing a low‑code tool that simplifies data acquisition in production plants. To this end, the EasyData team is creating a method that allows sensors to be retro‑fitted to production equipment and the resulting data streams to be processed in a structured way. This should enable SMEs to optimise their own processes and to build an infrastructure that supports the creation of digital product passports—without the need for IT specialists.

A low‑code planning tool will be created that automatically generates the software for data collection, preparation, and processing. Any graphical model of the production system can serve as the basis for this low‑code planner, e.g., an aerial image of the plant or a process diagram. Using this graphical model, users can add drag‑and‑drop markings (annotations) to machine or system components—for instance, to capture a motor’s speed or temperature. The annotations not only specify which data should be recorded (e.g., pressure, temperature, speed) but also define the sampling frequency or time interval (e.g., every second, every minute). Once the data points are marked in the graphical model, the low‑code tool links this information to the interfaces of the actual systems, for example via the OPC‑UA standard.