Manufacturing execution systems (MES) are changing the ways in which manufacturers operate in the fourth industrial revolution.
MES insights
- Smart manufacturing is leaning more on manufacturing execution systems (MES) to streamline production.
- MES has evolved to include a number of new technologies, from generative artificial intelligence (AI) to robots and beyond.
- MES can help manufacturers streamline processes, enable proactive operations and improve product quality.
Manufacturing is deep into the fourth industrial revolution – also known as smart manufacturing – transforming the industry globally. While the details and its effects vary in different regions, one thing is certain: manufacturing is now a global economic powerhouse. This transformation is a mix of new technologies that blur the lines between the physical and the digital worlds, creating systems that simply couldn’t exist even a few years ago.
The revolution is also merging the lines between operational technology (OT) – such as automation and control systems – and information technology (IT) including manufacturing execution systems (MES) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. As artificial intelligence (AI) is integrated into the technological mix, manufacturers are discovering new ways to interact with their systems, enabling smarter, highly interconnected and data-driven operations.
What’s driving the fourth industrial revolution?
Although the specific technologies behind the fourth industrial revolution are numerous and constantly evolving, a few key trends are emerging across industries worldwide. Here are some of the most common technologies shaping the future of manufacturing today:
- Connectivity: The industrial internet of things (IIoT) connects smart devices, such as sensors, robots, wearables and more, into vast networks that generate and share data in real time.
- AI: Generative AI, machine learning, agents and copilots enable machines and systems to automate processes and learn from data and allow people to collaborate and perform complex tasks.
- Robotics: Robots are integrated into production lines, performing tasks that are repetitive, dangerous and require high precision. Autonomous robots incorporate AI components to perform their tasks without direct and constant supervision.
- Cyber-physical systems (CPS): These systems combine computing, networking, digital processes and physical processes, enabling real-time data exchange and control.
- Big data and cloud computing: Large datasets are analyzed to gain insights, improve decision-making and optimize processes.
- Digital platforms: Technology-enabled platforms connect people, assets and data, creating business models and new ways of consuming goods and services.
MES on the shop floor
Manufacturing execution systems have been around for decades – long before they were even called MES. But today’s systems are nothing like those from just a few years ago. MES has evolved to embrace the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution and has become a cornerstone in turning those technologies into reality on the shop floor.
MES is a key part of the fourth industrial revolution when it comes to the shop floor. In fact, many of the revolution’s key benefits are difficult to achieve without MES as its foundation. By implementing MES, manufacturing companies can:
- Streamline and optimize the manufacturing processes
- Transform from reactive to proactive operations
- Enhance speed, agility, flexibility and responsiveness
- Increase collaboration and boost employee productivity
- Improve production quality, consistency and predictability
MES also helps manufacturers digitally transform themselves from traditional manufacturing to highly innovative, efficient, agile and responsive manufacturing:
- It’s no longer about low-cost labor. It’s about highly skilled, knowledge-driven workers who understand the importance of information.
- It’s not just about expanding manufacturing capacity; it’s about building the capabilities needed to meet evolving market demands.
- It’s not about filling manufacturing capacity –– it’s about fulfilling customer requirements and even those of the customer’s customer.
- It’s not about mass production. It’s about the digital factory where every product is unique and can be customized.
- It’s not just about productivity. It’s about agility, responsiveness and the ability to change directions quickly to meet customer expectations.
MES helps manufacturers do all this and more, because it is a cornerstone of the fourth industrial revolution. Without MES, realizing the full benefits of this transformation on the shop floor is nearly impossible.
MES is not a silver bullet
MES is not a silver bullet. It cannot be installed with the expectation of immediate results. Real success with MES takes a lot of work, especially from the people who use and interact with it daily. While MES can provide data and, more importantly, context for that data, it’s up to people to take that data and use the insights for decision making.
In fact, the real definition of the fourth industrial revolution and smart manufacturing is smart people using smart technology to deliver smart outcomes.
MES provides some great tools that collect data, add context, turn it into actionable information and disseminate that information to the right people. But technology alone isn’t enough. People must be trained, knowledgeable and, most importantly, empowered to act on that information. Only when people and technology work together in this way do the real, bottom-line dollar benefits of smart manufacturing emerge.
How MES empowers the shop floor
There’s more to MES than meets the eye. As manufacturers fully embrace the fourth industrial revolution, today’s MES is key to connecting people, systems and processes on the shop floor. Here’s how MES empowers the shop floor to drive the factory of the future.
- Connected factory worker: MES is designed to support the connected factory worker, allowing teams to collaborate and providing one version of the truth. MES ends the debate over whose data is correct, because it’s everyone’s data. It connects shop floor operators to the data and context that they must do their jobs effectively. MES becomes a one-stop shop for everything the factory worker must know what’s going on and to make something happen on the shop floor.
- Resilient manufacturing: Resilience means to build a manufacturing operation that can face adversity and challenges head on, defeat those challenges and come out on the other side even stronger. MES is key to building a resilient manufacturing operation. It supports resilient manufacturing operations –– those that are stable, versatile, agile and responsive. MES helps manufacturers deal with upsets and move on, not letting any of the upsets have a significant impact.
- Paperless operations: MES supports paperless operations, which means the data isn’t on paper but in a database and everyone can see and use it. Most important, the data from multiple pieces of paper is correlated and contextualized so that people can know what’s going on and then do something about it. It’s about seeing trends and changes over time, which are almost impossible to detect looking only at paper.
- People. Planet. Profit: It’s not enough for manufacturers to make things and make a profit. Today, manufacturers must achieve the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. That is, they must be socially responsible, environmentally sustainable and economically profitable. All easier said than done, but MES goes a long way to making the triple bottom line a reality for manufacturers.
- Industrial internet of things (IIoT): MES embraces the IIoT. The IIoT seems to be synonymous with smart manufacturing but it takes more than the IIoT to make smart manufacturing a reality. And it’s not an either/or proposition between MES and the IIoT. Today’s MES makes the IIoT part of the solution. It uses the IIoT in all its myriad ways to get the data and the context. MES then disseminates the data to everyone who needs it, making the IIoT a part of MES.
- Artificial intelligence (AI): MES embraces artificial intelligence. MES uses machine learning to look at large volumes of data from the shop floor and learn from that data, detecting patterns and responding long before a real problem occurs. MES uses large language models to translate information and actions into natural language. People working on the shop floor don’t have to be data scientists but can understand what’s going on and take appropriate action. MES uses AI to get beyond the equipment level to the line level, making decisions and driving optimization at the line level. Only MES helps do that.
- MES and ERP: MES and enterprise resource planning (ERP) complement each other by focusing on what they do best. MES serves as the universal data collector for ERP, particularly in manufacturing operations where real-time data is critical. MES collects data from the shop floor at the right frequency and granularity, making certain ERP receive accurate, timely information –– when and how it’s needed –– for effective decision-making.
- MES and PLM: MES and product lifecycle management (PLM) work together to connect product design with manufacturing execution. PLM contains essential product design information, while MES executes the manufacturing operations. MES needs design data from PLM, including the process plan, equipment plan, quality inspection parameters, manufacturing bill of materials and work instructions. All this information originates in PLM and is critical to efficient shop floor operations.
MES is empowering smart manufacturing
The fourth industrial revolution is transforming industries, creating opportunities in the workplace and impacting how we live, work and interact with each other. It’s a time of rapid technological advancement and disruption, requiring individuals and organizations to adapt, innovate and embrace change.
In this new era, manufacturing has become a global economic powerhouse. Manufacturing operations are being transformed, led by highly skilled, innovative and efficient knowledgeable workers. Manufacturing employment might even be decreasing in many countries, but manufacturing output around the world is at or near its all-time high.
Today’s MES is at the heart of this transformation. Far from MES of the past, today’s systems have evolved to become a cornerstone of smart manufacturing. MES has not only embraced the fourth industrial revolution –– it’s helping to drive it forward on the shop floor.
It’s nearly impossible to achieve the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution without MES. MES makes the revolution real.
Take a closer look at today’s MES and discover how it can help make the fourth industrial revolution a reality.
John Clemons is a solutions consultant with LifecycleIQ Services at Rockwell Automation.
