What Is a Manufacturing Execution System?

The Manufacturing Execution System (MES) was proposed by the American Advanced Manufacturing Research (Inc.) in the early 1990s. It aims to strengthen the execution function of the MRP plan, and control the MRP plan with the workshop job site. The systems are linked. The on-site control here includes PLC program controller, data collector, bar code, various measuring and testing instruments, manipulator and so on. The MES system has set up the necessary interfaces and established cooperative relationships with manufacturers who provide control facilities at the production site.

Mission of MES

The manufacturing execution system was proposed by the American AMR company in the early 90's. It aims to strengthen the execution function of the MRP plan and link the MRP plan with the workshop site control system through the execution system. Obviously, MES has defined its mission since its inception: MES was born to connect the hub. In 1997, MESA (Manufacturing Execution System Association) proposed MES functional components and integration models, including 11 functions. It is also stipulated that as long as one or several of the 11 functions are provided, they are also a single-function product of the MES series.

With a good hand, the development of MES was unexpectedly slow. MES began to develop in the 1990s, and was initially widely used in industries with a relatively high degree of automation. Such as the automotive industry, semiconductor electronics, tobacco industry, but also in the food and beverage, engineering machinery, large discrete assembly, home appliances industry has been promoted.

MES is highly competitive

Automation equipment vendors are still mainstream suppliers in the MES market, but it is also difficult to form oligarchs such as SAP in the ERP industry. Although ERP manufacturers have also tried to enter the MES industry, the market expansion effect is not good. Obviously, ERP manufacturers familiar with resource management are very familiar with field control systems and data collection.

MES development is slow

The contradiction between the industrial needs of MES and general-purpose products is becoming increasingly prominent, and the degree of productization is insufficient. Unlike ERP, MES was created from the beginning to solve the factory management and control problems that are difficult to be solved by general ERP functions. Therefore, even with years of development, MES cannot get rid of the limitations imposed by the industry. For example, PSI and Baoxin are specialized in the steel industry. Even if they have ambitions to develop industries other than steel, it is difficult to switch from the mainstream steel market to other industries due to the recent rapid shrinkage of the steel market. The industry Know-How is the threshold that cannot be crossed. To this end, some MES manufacturers (such as Siemens) are exploring new industries through mergers and acquisitions. For example, Siemens acquired CamStar in the United States in 2014 in order to strengthen the fields of electronics and medical equipment.

MES meets the threshold

With the boom in the construction of smart factories, higher requirements are imposed on the integration of MES. Vertical integration requires that MES not only integrate with ERP, but also integrate with the control system; not only requires data collection, but also hopes to achieve the control parameters and process standards Release. This also poses great challenges for MES suppliers.

It is worth noting that despite the development of MES for many years, its industrialization scale is still insufficient. A mature industry should be composed of suppliers, service providers (distributors) and users, such as ERP, PLM. However, the recent MESs are mostly suppliers directly facing users, and the industry scale is far from being developed.

MES is a thermometer for the degree of enterprise information

Because of the MES data sheet, there are multiple perspectives from the factory. Therefore, if the company's own process resources, manufacturing resources, and process nodes cannot be standardized and effective, MES manufacturers will have to scratch their butts and help the company to organize its own resources digitally. Want to spin colorful damask for customers, and users first move out of a bunch of chaotic threads. This is often miserable for MES manufacturers.

From the perspective of foreign development trends, a number of MES software product vendors and industry solution providers have been formed. The division of labor between ERP and MES has become clearer. The application focus of enterprise intelligent manufacturing has shifted from ERP to MES, and MES has changed from the supporting role of ERP to the protagonist of production butler.

1. Manufacturing resource allocation and status report; ^[2]

Manufacturing Execution System

2. Detailed operation plan;

3 Production scheduling

4 Workshop document management;

5. data collection;

6. human resource Management;

7. Quality management;

8. Process management

9. Equipment maintenance management;

10 Product tracking

11. Performance analysis.