To thrive in a fast-paced and relentlessly competitive business climate, enterprises have to run very tight ships. Manufacturing companies that leverage Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) to integrate information flow across the chain of operations, finance, and management are realizing critical benefits in quality, productivity, continuous process improvements and bottom-lines.

MES is a dynamic information system that powers efficient execution of manufacturing operations. It basically connects 11 decision-based functions under one reliable, common repository for current data exchange:

Access to the latest information about production activities across the enterprise and supply chain via two-way communications means all enterprise systems stay on the same page.

• A paperless enterprise
  

  Paper based record-keeping systems are subject to human errors that can result in production delays – and even worse, shipment of faulty products. As a software-based alternative, MES can enforce adherence to correct manufacturing procedures and eliminate both recordkeeping errors and the time-consuming reviews meant to catch them. Quick and easy access to key product and process data make it much easier to trace components and fix specific snags.
  

• Efficient document control and data collection
  

  Engineering change notices, CAD/ CAM representations and components as well as quality documents can all be controlled by an MES document control system. It obviates multiple entries of the same data and ensures no operator or assembler retrieves an obsolete revision to perform a specific task.
  

• Improved quality control
  

  The innumerable documents employed by quality managers as well as the various systems used to create and edit them can be merged into a centralized intuitive process. This makes it easier to view shop-floor bottlenecks and make appropriate changes in real time, compare predicted costs vs. actual costs, track non-conformances, and electronically flag operators when a process is due for inspection.
  

• Additional benefits
  

  Further merits like increased line yield and throughput, significantly reduced cycle time and out-of-box failures make the case for switching to an MES very compelling indeed.

An important study by the Aberdeen Group reveals that best-in-class performers shared several common characteristics with regard to MES. These enterprises were 52 per cent more likely to utilize MES and 61 per cent more likely to integrate MES with ERP. Their research also indicated that 77 per cent of these distinguished performers utilized automated data collection for production, inventory and quality data. They were 67 per cent more likely than other manufacturers to furnish this data to relevant job roles for efficient decision-making.

Recent research by the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) titled “Metrics that Matter”, also indicates that manufacturers who use MES to frequently share key performance information between operations and finance demonstrate a clear industry advantage. Respondents to the research who used MES were more than twice as likely to have improved by an average of over 1 percent annually, across the past three years in upside production flexibility, energy cost per unit of production, and market share.

Enterprises that leverage key advantages offered by solutions like an MES are distinguishing themselves in the manufacturing environment. But irrespective of where an enterprise is in relation to manufacturing excellence, it can make significant progress by setting global manufacturing standards, creating a values-focused metrics program, and closing gaps between the plant and the board room through a common information platform. These steps, in conjunction with unified technology infrastructure and a centralized knowledge repository, will go far in creating the internal flexibility that translates to overall manufacturing distinction.