The Rules Have Changed: What Does MES Mean to You?

The manufacturing industry is experiencing a reinvigoration in the use of Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solutions as critical business tools. With an explosion in the number of modules and options available, MES software has evolved into a sophisticated industry solution, both multifaceted and technologically advanced.

These changes have caused customers to ask, "What does MES mean to me?"

What is MES?

A Manufacturing Execution System monitors and manages your operations and the work in progress of your plant floor. A good MES will offer reliable, two-way real-time data exchange between your machines and your software to guide, trigger and report on plant activities.

Ultimately, a MES supports real-time, proactive decision making through operator support, planning and scheduling, resource management and accurate real-time production visibility.

Some of the core functionality that an MES could offer includes:

Detailed Inventory Tracking

• Business Activity Monitoring
  Business Activity Monitoring: Use an event-based notification system to capture and evaluate data for proactive decision making and timely corrective actions
• Business Intelligence
  Business Intelligence: Leverage the data collected by your MES to bring Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) data and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reporting and analysis to your fingertips for informed decisions
• Document Control
  Document Control: Conform to strict industry requirements while maintaining all pertinent external and internal documents for complete control of the entire lifecycle of your documents. Make quicker, more informed decisions with workflow-based routing and approval tools
• Inventory Management
  Inventory Management: Simplify and improve inventory transactions, from the warehouse to the production floor to the shipping dock, for maximum accountability and total inventory control, including:

  • Barcoding and Labeling: Easily scan materials as they go in and products as they go out for accurate inventory control, detailed lot traceability, complex labeling and flexible barcoding
  • Capacity Planning: Maintain lean inventory levels and manage all aspects of manufacturing demand with Material Requirements Planning (MRP) tools
• Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO)
  Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO): Establish a complete preventative maintenance program for your machines, tools, auxiliary equipment, gages and more to eliminate scheduling conflicts and unexpected downtime
• Planning and Scheduling
  Planning and Scheduling: Incorporate all your scheduling requirements and objectives into one central engine that optimizes your schedule and meets your lean business objectives
• Quality Management
  Quality Management: Manage critical quality aspects, such as audits, parts and equipment parameters trending out of specification and end-to-end part visibility with a comprehensive quality management system

  • Statistical Process Control (SPC): A subset of quality, SPC can allow you to track, maintain, measure and perform calibrations to assure consistent quality and continually improve
• IQMS RealTime™ Process Monitoring
  IQMS RealTime™ Process Monitoring: Continuously measure equipment capability and correlate process parameters to your products in real time
• IQMS RealTime™ Production Monitoring
  IQMS RealTime™ Production Monitoring: Immediately track and report your results as parts are being made, including overall enterprise efficiency or specific work center performance, for ultimate shop floor control. Capture material and process traceability for your products
• Time and Attendance
  Time and Attendance: Streamline and track the clocking in/out of employees and relay labor reporting directly into your financial system

Why are People Adopting MES?

Customers utilizing IQMS' MES software solutions experience:

• Reduced production errors
• Decreased inventory lead time
• Improved quality compliance and reduced quality losses
• Increased production throughput
• Increased company-wide productivity
• Increased cost control
• Proactively make informed decisions

Good ERP integration occurs when the MES software complements your ERP software. The two programs should integrate fluidly by both capturing data in real time and making decisions in real time, with all of your critical information flowing easily back and forth between the two programs.

When Purchasing an MES, What Should You Look For?

What was once designed to monitor a single class of machines can now manage your entire shop floor. When considering MES offerings, look at what comes standard with the core. Most MES packages are designed to work intimately together, so you need a specific set of modules to allow for inventory, scheduling and production monitoring. Check out the variety of modules that are offered, paying particular attention to how far the system can reach, and whether you are limited in the tools that are available to you.

Just as you would see changes on a shop floor in real time, you want your system to update in real time versus batch interfaces. Eliminate costly and cumbersome third-party, SCADA or other batch software integration. Capture real-time information for enhanced decision making.

Finally, you should consider the MES software's ability to integrate at the machine level before making a selection. How will the MES package interface with your machines? Does it tie directly into the machine's controller, PLCs or directly to sensors? How about your current SCADA-based (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) or OPC-based (Open Platform Communications) server system? How does it get that information back to the software for analysis and alerts? Can you get visual aids, like machine status light sticks, to assist in the process?

As mobile technology continues to pervade the manufacturing environment, consider the level of state-of-the-art technology that the MES software offers. Does the MES package deliver tools and options that interface with today's new mobile technology? Can you perform SPC inspections on the fly? Scan inventory from the shop floor? Accept workflows and approve decisions from your smart phone? MES packages should be designed to keep up with the latest technology so your company stays on the cutting edge.

Before you embark on selecting an MES vendor, be sure to clearly define exactly what you are trying to achieve. That way, you won't miss inquiring about a feature or module that is critical to your success when evaluating packages.

Whether you are looking for a standalone MES software or the complete MES and ERP solution, IQMS can increase your visibility and transparency into every aspect of your manufacturing operation.

Click here to learn more about IQMS MES

Source: IQMS