Indexing and searching manufacturing process related information

A method for facilitating searching manufacturing process information, comprising:

• mapping at least one first indexing agent to a first type of information accessed from a manufacturing process within an industrial automation system;
• mapping at least one second indexing agent to a second type of information accessed from the manufacturing process;
• creating one or more type-specific indices by employing the at least one first indexing agent and the at least one second indexing agent;
• changing a number of indexing agents employed in the industrial automation system in response to a change in a number of types of information accessed from the manufacturing process;
• and
• employing at least one of the one or more type-specific indices, real-time data accessed from an industrial automation device via a first data broker, or historical data accessed from a data storage via a second data broker to facilitate responding to a manufacturing process information search query.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause an industrial automation system, including at least one processor, to perform operations, comprising:

• accessing a first and a second type of information from a manufacturing process within an industrial automation system;
• creating a first set of sub-indices by employing a first set of indexing agents that are mapped to the first type of information;
• creating a second set of sub-indices by employing a second set of indexing agents that are mapped to the second type of information;
• modifying a number of sets of indexing agents in response to at least one of an increase or decrease in a number of types of manufacturing information received from the manufacturing process;
• and
• employing at least one of the first set of sub-indices, the second set of sub-indices, real-time data accessed from an industrial automation device via a first data broker, or historical data accessed from a data storage via a second data broker to facilitate responding to a manufacturing process information search query.