An open application protocol for industrial equipment is disclosed. Disclosed techniques include: opening a connection between (a) an open application associated with a manufacturing execution system and (b) an instance of a data sharing interface operating on an industrial machine used in a surface mounting process, the open application being configured to communicate with any machine that implements the data sharing interface, regardless of machine type or manufacturer; discovering, by the open application via the connection, discoverable information associated with the industrial machine, the discoverable information including one or more of data items, events, commands, or alarms; and controlling, by the open application via the connection, operation of the industrial machine to control at least a portion of the surface mounting process.