Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence has released Hexagon Connected Worker Integration, a middleware platform built to connect ERP, MES, CAD/CAM, quality, and maintenance systems without requiring custom point-to-point development. "Manufacturers don't need more disconnected software. They need their existing technology to work together," says Darren Metherell, head of sales for Hexagon Connected Worker at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence.
The platform functions as a central integration layer sitting between enterprise applications, operational technology, cloud platforms, and industrial devices, supporting a broad range of communication protocols, APIs, databases, and industrial standards. Hexagon lists use cases spanning connecting ERP to MES and warehouse systems, integrating PLCs and edge equipment, synchronizing maintenance workflows, delivering digital work instructions to frontline workers, and linking SCADA systems to enterprise software. Rather than one-off integrations built for a single system pair, the platform is designed to support event-driven workflows that trigger automatically as production conditions change.
What's new here is the tie-in to quality data specifically. Connected Worker Integration connects to Q-DAS statistical process control software and can trigger automated workflows whenever process conditions fall outside defined limits, turning an SPC out-of-tolerance event into an automatic downstream action rather than something an operator has to notice and act on manually. Engineers running SPC on the shop floor will care about that link most, since it moves control-chart violations directly into workflow automation instead of a standalone alert.
Hexagon is also using the platform to deepen integration within its own software portfolio. Shops running RADAN can now exchange quoting, nesting, routing, and production data automatically with ERP and MES systems, removing manual file transfers that previously kept those systems in sync only as often as someone remembered to export a file.
Hexagon says similar integration capabilities can extend to additional manufacturing workflows as organizations expand their connected operations, though the company has not detailed which other software in its portfolio, or which third-party systems, will get equivalent automated links next. For now, the RADAN and Q-DAS connections stand as the concrete examples of what the middleware actually does today.
