An authorization level is the defined amount of access or permission granted to a user, role, device, application, or system account. It determines what that entity is allowed to view, change, approve, execute, or administer within a system.
In manufacturing and industrial software, authorization levels are commonly used in MES, ERP, QMS, PLM, SCADA, and document control systems. For example, an operator may be allowed to record production results, a quality engineer may be allowed to disposition a nonconformance, and an administrator may be allowed to change master data or user permissions.
Authorization should not be confused with authentication. Authentication verifies identity, such as through a login or badge. Authorization controls what the authenticated identity is permitted to do. Authorization levels may be implemented through roles, groups, permissions, workflow states, or access control rules.
Authorization levels are important in regulated or quality-sensitive environments because they help separate duties, protect controlled records, and limit changes to approved users. The term describes the permission structure itself; it does not by itself imply that a system is validated, compliant, or audit-ready.