The Gartner research group and MESA (Manufacturing Enterprise Systems Association) recently completed their annual survey of manufacturers (over 100) on their usage of manufacturing systems. Thanks to several years of data, they are able to look at trends in the manufacturing industry and it was generally good news in 2014 for the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) market—for both users and vendors.
#1. MES is finally Accepted as part of Enterprise IT Landscape
MES projects have a proven track record of benefits and are now viewed at the same strategic and enterprise level of importance than PLM and ERP projects. Most companies are not putting MES projects in queue behind PLM and ERP projects anymore. Manufacturing competency is recognized as an important competitive differentiator.
#2. MES Benefits Expectations focused on Improving Product Quality
More companies view quality as an integral part of their manufacturing systems strategy and are seeing the benefits of integrating quality versus keeping quality as a separate process and system.
#3. MES Barriers Move from Credibility to Agreement
As MES is now viewed as critical part of the enterprise systems platform, the entire enterprise needs to participate in the requirements definition, selection process and rollout plan. The shift from local to corporate level project can slow down projects and the achievement of early benefits.
#4. MES Implementations Move Away from Heavy Customization
The increased availability of industry specific mature MES solutions means that companies are looking at more out-of-the-box implementations and should expect less need for expensive custom extensions to commercial products. To benefit from OOB functionality, it is important that companies do their homework and look for MES products that fit their needs instead of assuming that customization is a required part of a project with any MES product. In today’s market, heavy customization is usually a symptom of selecting a product that does not fit the industry or manufacturing type.
There are many more valuable insights in the recorded webcast than the four listed above, so if you are interested in these subjects, I recommend the whole webcast and presentation which is found for members at MESA.org (see References below). I also recommend joining MESA.org for full access to this and other valuable reference resources.
Reference:
“Has MES Come of Age?”, Recorded webcast by Julie Fraser of IYNO and Rick Franzosa of Gartner, MESA.org, 2014 https://services.mesa.org/ResourceLibrary/ShowResource/47eff093-b4f9-417e-9aa1-1ddbf3e82757
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