Manufacturing Execution Systems

Background

Regardless of company size, manufacturing is an extremely competitive industry. To compete in today's global market, reliable data is essential to manage the individual operations that comprise the manufacturing process. Recently, process and manufacturing engineers have begun exploring the notion of exploiting the wealth of data generated and often discarded with each control cycle. These approaches include:

Integrating shop floor processes with relational database management systems (RDBMS), to regulate and refine the production line.

Utilizing the data generated by programmable logic controllers (PLC) which are commonly configured on shop floor intranets/LANs.

Likewise, many IT managers have begun to consider the value in:

Linking corporate enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain planning (SCP) data with manufacturing data across one or more product lines.

Associating day-to-day production data with more strategic data, to achieve more accurate planning and resource scheduling.

MES Defined

Manufacturing Control Systems (MCS) are routinely used by shop floor operators and engineers for process control and to automate production.  A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) provides a layer of robust engineering functionality beyond the shop floor.  This second tier typically rests on top of the MCS layer, and directly under the corporate IT layer where ERP and other high end systems reside.  Unlike the MCS, which is implemented across individual processes, MES ties all operations together and treats them as a coherent unit.  Simply stated, MES is the big picture for what is happening on the manufacturing line at any given time.  The MES layer provides the ideal connection point to implement real-time production control leading to, among other things:

• Reliable real-time data archival from the shop floor
• Historical trending, and statistical process control (SPC)
• Material lot and expiration control
• Complete product genealogy
• Work-in-progress reduction
• Event and alarm management
• Batch and recipe administration
• Inventory control

The PowerVision Approach to MES

PowerVision's Manufacturing Sector provides complete life cycle support for all manufacturing based systems.  We utilize vision@workSM to ensure the success of every project– from the simplest operator interface, to the most comprehensive MES platform design. Our engineers bring unique approaches to the task:

We emphasize planning and design as much as development and integration, knowing that the up-front work pays off in a smoother, more successful deployment of your system.

Early in the planning process, we work directly with both managers and end users to identify how the manufacturing processes, present and proposed information systems, and the users need to interact for the best results.

• We extensively use prototyping to identify both functional as well as usability issues.
• We create a comprehensive functional specification to fully describe the system's requirements.  This eliminates any last minute surprises; instead, the system does exactly what you need it to do.
• We develop a detailed design specification, which acts as the blueprint for application development and systems integration. 
• We work with you to jointly create a test plan to thoroughly ensure that the system will fully meet everyone's expectations.
• We ensure the your satisfaction with each development phase by a walkthrough and sign-off.

Our MES Architecture

PowerVision engineers develop open object-oriented system architectures, because we recognize that most manufacturing platforms consist of many applications working together—generally from different vendors.  Over time, MES will become even more heterogeneous with the increased utilization of web interfaces, remote databases and distributed processes.  Contributing to this trend is the best-of-breed design approach, which allows a system to utilize components from many different vendors, based strictly on their level of functionality and performance.

PowerVision's manufacturing specialists take the long-term view in developing systems that are scalable and extensible at every point, because in today's market, proprietary systems with their built-in obsolescence are unacceptable.  PowerVision's MESVisionSM framework allows legacy control and information systems to seamlessly integrate with contemporary MES services based on COM and DCOM.  Accordingly, data can be readily transferred between the MES and your existing ERP system.  Functionality can be added as needed without adversely affecting older, more proprietary platforms.  Information can be accessed and reviewed via web browser or through more traditional front-end interfaces, such as those developed in Visual Basic, Visual C++, Delphi or Java.

Benefits

While many different levels of functionality can be implemented on a given production line, even an entry level system that provides basic data collection and analysis services will yield a substantial return on investment (ROI) in terms of higher quality product as well as increased manufacturing productivity—too often seen as competing interests. These results include:

• Significant time and cost savings.  The difference between compiling a complex report using traditional paper-based methods and electronic data retrieval is typically greater than two orders of magnitude—more than 100 times faster!  For one customer, a detailed monthly Statistical Process Control (SPC) report run across several molding operations that previously took 70 to 80 hours to manually compile now takes less than a minute.
• Improved quality due to the ability to carry out historical trending, qualitative analysis and to rapidly trace defective final products back to specific raw material lots and operations.  Data analysis often reveals subtle, yet potentially serious processing issues.
• Higher levels of process efficiency facilitated through operational analysis to quickly reveal production bottlenecks.
• Rapid material-to-product pedigree and work-in-progress (WIP) tracking.
• Lower scrap, fewer reworks and more importantly – less waste.
• Easier ISO 9000 compliance due to readily available material and processing genealogy.   Documentation services can be integrated within the MES to provide instant access to processing and testing procedures.
• Better security, tailored to each operation, but which can be administered from one centralized location.

Conclusion

A well designed MES platform provides a rapid and substantial ROI in both cost and time savings.  The net result of MES technology is higher manufacturing throughput, tighter production control, increased product quality and a greatly enhanced ability to respond the dynamics of a contemporary manufacturing environment.

TRADEMARKS.  PowerVision, We Make IT Happen!, vision@work, and MESVision are service marks of PowerVision Corporation.  Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.