IFS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE ROLE OF MANUFACTURING EXECUTION SYSTEMS (MES) IN ERP SELECTION
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is well-understood by most mid-level and senior managers. Fewer understand at a high level manufacturing execution systems (MES). MES is hard to define to begin with because it is an intermediary technology between process automation equipment on the plant floor and ERP software. So let’s define some terms and drive clarity on what MES is, who needs it and how IFS meets the needs of companies who want ERP software with the functional benefits of MES.
Common definitions of MES suggest that it: • Tracks and documents the transformation of raw materials into finished goods • Provides information to help business decision-makers understand real-time conditions in their plant to support optimization of operations • Enables control of inputs, personnel, machines and support services
APICS, the association for operations management, defines MES as involving: • Direct and supervisory control of equipment • Graphical displays showing what is going on in the plant currently • Gathering quality information, material transactions and traceability information through integration with the production equipment used
Most of these needs are satisfied by IFS Applications™. IFS functionality for ERP will provide deep traceability for inputs through inventory and non-inventory quality management tools. Personnel are managed through human resources functionality, and support services from outside the organization are handled through embedded contract management tools. Documents having to do with these various disciplines are handled by native document management functionality that enables any document—be it a material test report or a personnel training record—to be attached to work orders, shop orders, customer orders, recipes; in fact, virtually to any object across the application. Document management in MES refers more to detailed transaction logs than documents usable by an ERP system. Due to its comprehensive and fully integrated nature, IFS Applications delivers the core of MES as part of a unified ERP product rather than through a point-to-point integration.
The extent to which MES serves as a middle tier between ERP and equipment fitted with programmable logic controllers (PLCs) is controversial for three reasons. • The first is that other systems that reside close to the equipment assets often fill this role already. At IFS, we find that most industrial settings that would truly benefit from MES already have a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, which performs several functions including high-level process control of automated equipment. SCADA also will often act as the plant historian, collecting real-time data on the operation of equipment. Ok, I have heard of SCADA but I’m not sure what it is.
IFS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• Unless MES is provided directly by the equipment manufacturer, it is more of a consulting and integration project than a defined software product. The majority of the cost involved in many MES products is in fact services rather than software. In some cases, the equipment manufacturer may require you to buy specialized modules to make data accessible to external systems or expose it in a non-proprietary format. These modules may overlap with common MES platforms. • The third challenge is that MES will not do a better job than any other competing discovery tool at acting as that middle tier between ERP and productive assets because SCADA, MES and other plant historian systems speak an entirely different language than ERP. MES will record equipment status every millisecond or so, while ERP will typically need to capture defined data points at the end of each batch or production run on average temperature or speed, high or low temperature or speed, etc. The information relevant for the ERP is a small subset of all information normally collected in the MES. So while MES or SCADA collects machine data in a continuous stream, ERP collects machine information in an aggregated fashion in the form of inputs, outputs, material transactions and machines times. ERP can also be involved in initiating process controls. But when it comes to data flowing from MES to ERP, some type of application will still be required to parse data before it reaches ERP, separating the irrelevant many from the critical few of interest to the transactional and analytical systems within ERP.
There are two well-defined methods within IFS Applications when it comes to monitoring and controlling real-time conditions on the plant floor or across a portfolio of distributed assets. • When data points to be shared between sensored assets and IFS Applications are well-defined, it is relatively simple to affect an integration directly with the appropriate BizAPI within IFS Applications. • The Microsoft Azure discovery platform paired with IFS IoT Business Connector may be a fit when data must be processed or some analytics are required before it is sent to IFS Applications.
Neither of these approaches duplicates existing plant historian or factory automation you may have implemented in your company. In cases where MES may still be desirable, IFS believes you may be better served by exploring industry- specific MES or those available from your equipment manufacturer. This will help you reduce the consulting and professional services component of your project while you reduce uncertainty or project risk.
For more information on IFS Applications for manufacturing, visit: http://www.ifsworld.com/us/solutions/enterprise-resource-planning/manufacturing-erp-software/
June 2018 June , ,
Production: IFS Corporate Marketing
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