Over time, producers invest in manufacturing automation to improve the quality of their goods at competitive prices. Having improved their operations, when is the right time to bear the expense of displacing the existing installed technology base?
Plant owners often ask Schneider Electric Alliance Partner Supertech to review the validity of investment decisions in Manufacturing Execution System (MES). This is relevant now with Industry 4.0 bringing new ways of integrating digitisation into manufacturing.
Why MES is Critical to Process Operations
Since the 1970s, MES evolved as an important link between planning systems like ERP and PLC based control systems. Today, most MESs serve as work-order-driven, work-in-progress tracking systems that manage and monitor production events and reporting activities. MES manages and records the events as they occur, to provide accurate information in near real-time.
Many of the processes within the consumer packaged goods, pharmaceutical, food & beverage, and specialty chemicals industries are batch processes. These industries are also regulated. MES helps compare batch cycle times, parameters, and variables across batches, to produce trend reports that summarise the batch data. The operations benefit from batch process consistency, reduced variability, and improved quality.
Supertech observed that the organisations that deployed MES benefitted in many ways. In general, they have experienced 30 percent gains in quality improvement and equipment uptime, 20 percent gains in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and manufacturing cost reduction, and 10 percent increased productivity on average.
Options for Integrating Digitisation with MES
Yet, given this evolution and these impressive benefits, businesses still must look ahead and achieve further improvements to remain competitive. Over the last few years, trends like Industry 4.0 inspired smart manufacturing have benefitted from innovative technologies such as cloud computing, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices, digital twins, and artificial intelligence (AI). These tools help manufacturers overcome supply chain, production, and distribution obstacles by linking core processes into a unified digital environment.
Given this wave of emerging technologies, there has been much discussion about whether MES is still relevant. When clients ask these questions, Supertech’s response is to propose two approaches:
Pure Digital Approach
If the scope of digital transformation is one or two single functions, such as data collection and dashboarding, then IIoT devices and analysis software will suffice. Devices like smart sensors can collect data from disparate automation systems across the enterprise. This has the benefit of turning siloed data into corporate-wide actionable information for analysing by cloud services for the purposes of benchmarking and process optimisation.
Enhancing MES by integrating digitisation
If a plant comprises complex workflows, interoperability, a need for standardisation, or an environment that is regulated like those mentioned earlier, then MES systems will still provide core benefits beyond those that some of the Industry 4.0 tools can deliver. Since MES offerings have evolved by integrating the knowledge and best practices of customers, it is important to retain that information. The operational process knowledge infused into MES solutions are difficult to replicate through new digital solutions.
Digitisation technologies will continue to evolve and mature. However, it is unlikely that they will replace MES soon. For those who have already invested in MES systems, integrating digital solutions will be a net productivity facilitator and complement, rather than substitute MES. It is probable that both solutions will collaborate in the future and bring business benefits for plant owners and operators.