What is MES (Manufacturing Execution System)?

What is MES?

MES stands for a manufacturing execution system, meaning a control system for monitoring and managing work and process on the fact three floor.

But that's an oversimplification of what a successful MES software implementation can do for manufacturers.

MES provides detailed resource scheduling and status.

Production dispatch and sequencing, traceability, genealogy, inventory, quality assurance, maintenance, management, document control, performance, analysis, and more.

MES is crucial for manufacturers because it exists in a space between business oriented applications, like ERP and Sketa HMI systems, designed to directly control plant floor operations, While an ERP can help allocate resources, it lacks the level of detail that MES provides.

MES allows for real time minute to minute or quicker resource scheduling, as well as handling execution and dispatch.

MES connects product to executive decision making by controlling tracking and documenting the transformation of raw materials into finished goods in real time.

This information gives a current accurate view of plant floor operations, especially when combined with dashboards that display current statuses and rates which can be compared to both historical data, as well as scheduled production goals.

Similarly, MES assist with recipe allowing organizations to formulate consistent methods for creating products from batch to batch, reducing waste while streamlining processes.

Additionally, recipes can be easily updated and altered, quickly adding new products or adjusting the spec of current offerings.

MES manages work in progress or WIP inventory throughout various stages of production.

By integrating with ERP and Skade assistance, MES automatically validates inventory levels at each stage, eliminating the need for manual verification location related to WIP inventory is the concept of track and trace, which documents batches and individual products on their journey from raw materials to semi finished goods, and finally to finished products.

By tracking, organizations gain a complete of each unit and can instantly trace its path through production in the case of a quality fluctuation.

All production facilities will have variation deviations, and exceptions in terms of quality and accepted parameters.

Connecting MES to a more granular scada system allows operators to alarms that indicate in real time when units are out of spec.

While not technically part of the system itself, overall equipment effectiveness or OE is closely linked to MES.

OE considers three ratios: actual run time to plan production time, the number of units started to the number of units process the standard rate, and good units produced to units started.

Using these ratios, organizations can add their operations, gain valuable insight, then improve production and equipment throughput.

A large factor in OE is downtime tracking.

Every minute of downtime on the plant floor means losing money and puts production behind schedule, reducing or even eliminating downtime is vital to meeting production goals and becoming a more efficient organization.

One of the best ways to implement an MES solution is to use the ignition software platform with Cephasoft suite of MES modules.

Ignition acts as the base with built in tools to develop best in class scada HMI solutions, with a service centric architecture paired with an unlimited licensing model, Ignition brings cutting edge automation software to both the plant floor and the board room.

A versatile solution like the ignition perspective module can easily connect data sources from across the organization displaying that information on flexible dynamic boards and generating custom reports, all in a mobile responsive application.

Subasoft's module slot right into ignition, expediting MES development, while delivering a powerful feature set including batch processing downtime monitoring procedure management, and more.

MES can be complicated, and creating a custom solution from scratch can be difficult to build and even harder to maintain.

Alternatively, Sepasoft's low code solutions reduce development time, minimizing technical debt, and total cost of ownership.

In one way or another, all organized having manufacturing execution system, whether it's automated, manual, or tracked completely in the mind of one person.

But in a plant floor environment, where consistency is vital, and downtime can be catastrophic, implementing a true MES will not only improve efficiency.

It will help manufacturers because come stronger businesses.