Automation and IIoT
What is ISA 95?
ISA 95 is the international standard for integrating enterprise and control systems. The levels 0 to 4, what MES covers at level 3 and how it guides ERP integration.
Quick answer
ISA 95, also published as IEC 62264, is the international standard for integrating enterprise systems such as ERP with manufacturing control systems. It defines a hierarchy of levels, from the physical process at level 0 to business planning at level 4, and standard models and terms for the information exchanged between them.
Updated 30 October 2026. Written by the Ajinkya Technologies engineering team, reviewed by Amey Kadle.
ISA 95 explained
The best known part of ISA 95 is its functional hierarchy. Level 0 is the physical process; level 1 is sensing and manipulating it; level 2 is monitoring and supervisory control (PLCs, SCADA, HMI); level 3 is manufacturing operations management, where MES, quality, maintenance and warehouse execution sit; and level 4 is business planning and logistics, the domain of ERP.
The standard is more than a diagram. It defines object models for the information that crosses the boundary between levels 3 and 4: production schedules, production performance, materials, equipment and personnel. It also describes the activities inside level 3, such as dispatching, detailed scheduling, data collection, tracking and performance analysis. The XML based B2MML schemas implement these models for system to system messages.
Using ISA 95 vocabulary reduces misunderstanding in projects: everyone means the same thing by a production order, a material lot or a work centre. Modern architectures such as a unified namespace often still organise data by an ISA 95 style equipment hierarchy of enterprise, site, area, line and cell.
Key concepts
- Also IEC 62264
- Levels 0 to 4, ERP at level 4, MES at level 3
- Models for schedules, performance, materials, equipment, people
- Level 3 activities: dispatch, tracking, analysis
- B2MML implements the models in XML
Questions
What level is MES in ISA 95?
Level 3, manufacturing operations management, between process control at level 2 and ERP at level 4.
Is ISA 95 still relevant with IIoT and the unified namespace?
Yes. Its equipment hierarchy and information models are widely used to structure topics and data in IIoT architectures, even when the strict layered communication is relaxed.
What is B2MML?
Business To Manufacturing Markup Language, a set of XML schemas that implement the ISA 95 models for exchanging data between ERP and MES.
References
How we help with ISA 95
We design MES to ERP integrations and plant data models around ISA 95, so orders, confirmations, materials and equipment mean the same thing in SAP, the MES and the shop floor.
Interactive 3D demo with simulated data: cut the network and watch the edge store and replay.
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