FAQ
Frequently asked questions
manubes FAQ
Frequently asked questions about manubes
On this page you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions about manubes.
For a better overview, we have sorted the questions by topic.
If you can’t find an answer to your question, feel free to contact us.
Basics
- What is manubes?
manubes is a cloud-based platform for industrial production management.
With manubes, you are able to connect your machines, devices, databases and other production-related systems to a powerful and secure cloud environment. There, you have access to a variety of tools for organizing, visualizing, and managing your production: Create comprehensive data models, design automated workflows and visualize production data in in real-time using dynamic webpages that allow authorized users to directly interact with production processes.
manubes combines cloud-based production management with modern citizen development: All manubes tools are designed as no-code and enable the quick development of applications in order to optimize a wide range of production processes.
manubes users can access the platform from anywhere in the world and on a wide variety of devices via web browser while benefitting from a secure and scalable SaaS infrastructure.
- Who is the developer of manubes?manubes is developed by us, inray Industriesoftware GmbH. With more than 25 years of experience in developing innovative software solutions for the industry, we are known by our customers as a reliable partner. Software from inray is used worldwide in the process and manufacturing industry, including areas such as mechanical engineering or plastics and food processing.
We have incorporated the knowledge gained from our many years of intensive cooperation with manufacturing companies into the development of manubes. The result is a high-performance, user-friendly and secure solution for cloud-based production management.
Cloud
- What advantages does a cloud solution offer?For manufacturing companies in particular, the use of a specialized cloud platform offers several key advantages:
- The manubes cloud platform can be accessed worldwide and on any device. All you need is an Internet connection and a modern web browser.
- The use of an external cloud infrastructure means that the costs, efforts and security risks associated with managing your own server infrastructure are eliminated. We take care of hardware, maintenance and performance, so that you can focus entirely on your core business.
- The manubes cloud environment is scalable – add new data sources, data models, visualizations or workflows at any time or expand your existing solutions.
You can find more information about cloud computing and its advantages here: What is Cloud Computing?
- How does my production data get transferred to the cloud?manubes utilizes edge components and industrial standard interfaces to connect a variety of production systems to the cloud – including machines, devices, databases and software systems. In doing so, manubs builds on the concept of edge computing to process and transfer data efficiently. For more detailed information, please visit our page on system integration with manubes.
Features
- What is the Datamodel Designer?With the help of the Datamodel Designer, you are able to organize production data from a wide variety of sources and determine how data is stored and processed in manubes.
Within a data model, production data is organized in tables. Users can define relationships between tables in order to represent relationships between orders, products, customers and many other entities.
- What is the Page Designer?The manubes Page Designer enables visualization of various production data in the form of HTML5-based webpages.
You can choose between a variety of display options such as tables, time series charts, gauge controls and labels, making it easy to effectively visualize process parameters like temperatures or key production metrics such as OEE. Elements can be inserted via drag-and-drop and linked to data sources.
Interactive elements such as buttons and forms allow authorized users to directly interact with production systems and processes. This way, manufacturers are able to create intuitive interfaces for mobile production control, making it possible to easily transmit data to machine controllers or other target systems.
The content of the created pages is responsive and updates dynamically and in real time, based on your data sources.
- What is the Workflow Designer?The manubes Workflow Designer can be used to automate and monitor various processes and data transfers in production, including for example database and API queries, sending emails, or custom alerts. Users have access to a wide variety of building blocks, allowing for the creation of fine-tuned automations on a no-code basis.
Workflows are visualized in a user-friendly way and can be easily created and customized via drag-and-drop.
- What is the Chat Assistant?The AI-based chat assistant is a tool that allows manubes users to access, analyze and process existing production data more easily and efficiently.
It is able to answer questions about production data stored in manubes by analyzing the existing data models.
In practice, the assistant can be utilized to provide detailed information about current orders, machine status, known disruptions, available ressources and many other aspects of production within seconds.
Connecting systems to manubes
- Which systems can I connect to the manubes cloud?In order to connect all production systems to the cloud in a standardized way, manubes supports the most important industrial standard interfaces.
That includes the OPC UA standard for vendor-independent machine and device communication as well as the IoT interfaces MQTT and REST, which enable access to a wide variety of devices, web services and APIs.
With support for Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL, manubes is able to connect the most important database types.
- How easy is the system integration with manubes?With manubes, you can connect a wide variety of production systems, including machines, devices, databases, analytics software and web services to the cloud-based infrastructure in just a few steps. To enable secure connections with local production sites, manubes utilizes Edge Nodes that can be installed in local networks and allow for a bidirectional data exchange between systems in those networks and the manubes cloud environment.
After the installation of an Edge Node in the network of the target system, users can create an Edge Connector, select the type of connection (e.g. OPC UA or MySQL database) and fill in the required connection data. Afterwards, the system is available in manubes as a data source.
- What are Edge Nodes, Edge Clusters and Edge Connectors?Edge Nodes, Edge Clusters and Edge Connectors are core components of manubes. Together, they enable the secure and uncomplicated connection of your machines, devices, databases and other systems to the cloud.
You can find out more about how the individual components work on our page about system integration with manubes.
Usage and support
- Does manubes offer a free trial?Yes, we provide you with the opportunity to test manubes for free. In order to get access to your personal test environment, please visit https://www.manubes.com/test-now/.
- Does manubes receive regular updates?manubes is constantly being further developed. We provide our customers with regular updates to ensure and improve the security, usability and functionality of the platform on a permanent basis.
- What are the system requirements for manubes?manubes is run in a high-performance cloud environment which is provided by us in its entirety. Acessing and operating the manubes platform only requires a web browser and an Internet connection.
The fail-safe and secure connection of local production systems to the manubes cloud is enabled by running local Edge Nodes. These can be operated platform-independently, architecture-independently and with minimal resource requirements.
- Can manubes users request technical support?Our support team is available to all manubes customers for technical challenges of any kind.
With urgent requests in particular, you benefit from our short response times and a high level of problem-solving expertise.
- Will there be additional extensions, Plug-ins or modules for manubes?No, the purchase of additional extensions, Plug-ins or modules is not required.