Features of the hottest MESIT strategic factory

Characteristics of MES it strategic factory

is MES a panacea for factory pain? The so-called manufacturing execution system (MES) tools can treat many manufacturing ailments. But the trick is: you can only take a little of this panacea at a certain time

Mr. Matt Holland, product manager of Siemens SIMATIC IT company, asked, "what is the real pain point in the factory surrounded by four walls?" Is it product quality, safety, rules and regulations, OEE (overall equipment efficiency), planning, scheduling, maintenance, or completely different standards and system procedures of different factories around the world? MES (Manufacturing Execution System) can help solve all these conventional problems

he saw the situation that it was squeezed by two sides: the "structural picture of the control side" squeezed from the bottom up was more simplified; ERP technology squeezed from the top down will be more and more inclined to the factory. He said, "the IT department must give up some rights. In reality, driven by the needs of the factory manufacturing department, it has to transfer to the factory workshop". As he added, the bottom line lies on the traditional brick wall between business and financial it, Due to open technology and "Microsoft's invasion of the workshop, operations and engineering design have been dismantled. What is the reason? Because for low-cost implementation and support to obtain functionality and sensitivity, the company sees its benefits in a single underlying infrastructure.

that is to say, manufacturers need to have foresight. Mr. Dominic Malloy, head of global manufacturing solutions at Rockwell Automation, said: "A 3-5-year business strategy must be clearly formulated. In order to recognize the main obstacles to this strategy, you need to use KPIs (key performance indicators) to test whether you have hit your goals."

as Mr. John Bailey, general manager of pantek, said, there are too few companies that can reach this definition level. They are convinced that MES technology is needed, but they believe that its scope is too wide. They need to clearly understand its possibility, priority and ability to deliver

strict scope

mes technology involves many aspects. Mr. Stuart Richards, the consulting manager of pantek, believes that most companies have realized that they need MES "all-purpose glue" - the meaning of which is to combine business and factory data and make profits from it

after that, MES can let you know what you are doing, that is to say, understand the real-time, hourly and daily workshop information, such as the decisions made at two levels

then MES can turn to the management of special problems, such as material shortage, downtime, rework or product recall. As Mr. Malloy said, "this is the ability to respond quickly." If you know how long it takes to produce a product, as well as the limited plan and the production capacity of the factory, on the one hand, you can deal with suppliers and meet the needs of customers, on the other hand, you can also solve your own problems. A real-time planner must have close contact with the production workshop. He can tell you what products can be produced according to the existing production units, as well as the downtime and current running speed. Then, you can make a new production plan according to your production capacity to meet the urgent orders of key customers and fulfill your commitments. Mr. Malloy commented, "it's good for both sides - you can react faster and withdraw from the market, and it's more predictable for your supplier."

in this paper, because companies tend to produce according to orders rather than according to inventory, the demand for MES is higher and higher. All this shows that in order to complete small batch orders, we need to shorten the cycle time and develop more flexible manufacturing processes. As Mr. Holland said, "now retailers have become God. They demand more flexible and expanding products". This means internal changes and requires you to better 'cooperate' with the supply chain. From this point of view, a good MES should provide sufficient visualization capabilities for the supply chain

there are many other problems that need to be solved by MES. Suppliers are increasingly asking for more detailed information about the source of materials and products. This is especially true in the food, beverage, chemical, pharmaceutical and other industries. Mr. Malloy believes that the environment outside the scope of FDA regulation is increasingly demanding. "All other industries with good tracking and backtracking systems will also become more stringent," he said. Such a system is often not mandatory, but it can always meet the requirements of industrial technology development, and can reduce the problems caused by product recall, service, etc

mes is not only to trace the source of products, but also to affect the general environment of the industry. Mr. Malloy commented: "MES always adheres to industry regulations, so it will increase the weight of your project, and provide such a concept to the authoritative department that formulates rules and regulations: that is, by tracking all parts, until products, and all actions and events that occur in production, it proves that you work completely under its specific guiding route.

modern MES technology also uses business intelligence systems to provide everything, including two-way communication to the whole Electronic workshop management and maintenance management, as well as optimize all aspects of automated production to adapt to the changing needs. They include a range of domain specific tools

the standard of success

there are eight steps to success. First, the change of management concept. Mr. John Bailey said, "the MES system has changed the management culture and the operating parameters of all production equipment". Therefore, it is necessary for a successful enterprise. Second, dealers/end users need to establish sincere and strategic partnerships, rather than hostile and lowest cost cooperation. Third, standardization. Using S95 model, as Mr. Holland said, "from the perspective of hierarchy, this model accurately defines the fault between ERP and control system and the functions to be completed". The question is how to integrate it. Fourth, system integration is not equal to simply making interfaces: MES system can connect your business/erp system and workshop/production process, but Mr. Malloy specially reminded that in order to obtain comprehensive benefits, it must be properly integrated. He suggested, "you must have a data chart of the system functions at hand to show which parts of the system need to communicate with each other and why." Fifth, don't engage in the "Big Bang" approach: Mr. Richards of pantek insists that users need this kind of MES system with modular bite structure. Mr. Malloy did say this: "under the MES umbrella system structure, Rockwell's method can evaluate 6 or 7 projects, which will bring different benefits. Then, we choose those projects that can produce the highest return immediately. This is a modular construction method." The key point is: you can use the investment income of the early project to invest in other projects, or take it as an experimental project, and use this fund to convince other people in the organization, because the MES you choose has brought tangible benefits to the organization. Mr. Bailey of pantek said, "we went through a prototype development stage, mainly using all the functions in a small project - which is very helpful for building confidence. It can be regarded as a controllable sequence." Sixth, take the form of teamwork. Mr. Malloy said, "the successful implementation of the project includes the driving role played by a cross functional team in the project." Best suggestion: according to the overall situation of quality, it and production, comprehensively understand the requirements of MES system and the meaning it contains. By the way, Mr. Richard also reminded that if the MES system has not been purchased in production, it is always very difficult. "In fact, they are the end users of MES system, and they will benefit from it." Many companies can be cited as examples. In order to hold the so-called "meeting", they spent a lot of wasted time, and in fact, there are better ways to solve it. The seventh is to set goals. In this way, you can measure the probability of success of the project. The eighth is implementation. Mr. Bailey said, "if you can't really get strong support from end users, you can't succeed. This driving force comes from the top of the enterprise."

mes is not only to trace the source of products, but also to affect the general environment of the manufacturing industry

legacy systems

from a functional point of view, it is relatively easy to integrate, configure and process legacy systems. Most dealers of MES system believe that it is very direct at all levels, which is due to the network standard of Fieldbus factory, OPC, Microsoft platform and network technology. As for people and their skills, Mr. Holland said: "the front cooperation team is a bottom-up and well-organized organization, but the actual configuration/integration work is carried out from the bottom up. You don't need to master the core technology, such as how to integrate with the older facilities in the factory."

another view: for Mr. Richards, the key is to decide what, why and how to integrate, so as to avoid falling into the costly trap. He asked, "there are many expensive middleware and networking methods, but do you need all the functions?" Mr. Bailey said, "integration is always a compromise. You can achieve high-speed integration in some fancy or business appropriate ways."

bailey cautioned that with legacy systems, such as old-fashioned SCADA