Why use an MES?

I already use an ERP-system. Why do I need an MES? (Manufacturing Execution System)

Virtually all discrete manufacturing companies in every industrial sector manage their business process information within an integrated ERP system, or within a "patchwork" of multiple IT-systems including spreadsheets. The typical areas that are being taken care of within these systems are: Sales, CRM, Finance, Purchasing/Procurement, Warehouse/Inventory, HR, QM, Production Planning, and so on.

Today, manufacturing companies face intense economic- and competitive pressures: Margins are getting slimmer, customers' delivery time expectations become ever more challenging, products may become more complex while product life cycles get shorter.

In many manufacturing firms, however, detailed and transparent data about key cost drivers along the value adding chain in their manufacturing environment is not available. Moreover, many target values for the production field that are usually maintained in the ERP-system or even in spreadsheets are based on assumptions or certain experiences from the past.

Without MES the questions are always the same:

  • How reliable is our capturing process of shop floor data  (up-times, down-times, yield, scrap, scrap reasons, utilization, efficiency, effectiveness, etc.) ?
  • What is the time offset (delay) between the lower shop floor actual data occurrence and data recognition in the ERP-system at the upper management level?
  • What is the actual staff effort (labor hours) and the associated labor costs required to capture all data manually, then to process it accordingly and to finally provide it to the upper management level (ERP-system)?
  • Why do we have so many delivery time problems, although we are not running at full capacity?
  • Why are we not as profitable as expected, although we had the best turnover and "full capacity" on our production environment?

Reason being: Near to the shop floor, there are only very limited IT-systems which are often very technical oriented towards machine-control(s) and technical automation or there are even no integrated IT-systems at all, with the result of necessary additional administration staff, additional time, and hence additional costs, for unnecessary communication, interfacing, telephone enquiries, a lot of paper, time delays, personal enquiries, lot of walking around or searching and "deadline hunting". This "gap" between the upper management level (ERP-systems, APS-systems, Spreadsheets, etc) and the lower shop floor environment therefore creates huge inefficiencies and hence costs in your overall company's internal performance.

This "gap" can be closed! The solution is the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) HYDRA !

A standardized and modular MES is the intermediate information system between the shop floor and the ERP level. The MES HYDRA provides detailed information transparency that usually no ERP-system can provide. HYDRA is based on mature and modular standard SW functionality that has proven itself in various industrial manufacturing environments.

ERP-Connectivity: The MES HYDRA provides flexible and reliable data interfaces to the upper management systems (such as ERP) and to the lower shop floor area (operator terminals and/or machine connectivity).

Shop Floor Connectivity (Operators): HYDRA excels through its acceptance by the operators on the shop floor, as the terminal screens are designed in such a way that workers from every culture, education and knowledge-level can operate them without much effort.

Shop Floor Connectivity (Machines): Virtually any machine can be easily connected with standardized solutions - be it an ultramodern works-center or robot, or even an extremely old manual machine with eventually "outdated" control technology.

What can we do with it? What benefit does HYDRA bring to us?

PROCESS TRANSPARENCY! The traditional cost accounting model on the management level translates the production performance in unit-cost or per-piece-cost. Remarkably, when looking at throughput time and associated actual resource utilization, these unit costs contain a substantial amount of general overhead costs (>95%) that are more or less taken as a given (Note: Material costs not considered!). These overhead costs can simply be viewed as opportunity cost of unutilized resources due to no value-adding productive activity. The result is that further improvements in unit-costs are difficult to achieve - be it through new technology in a specific technology process, cutting wages, or many other measures. Often, this phenomenon is being referred to as "Unit Cost Trap" or the "Per-Piece-Cost Trap" :

The process potential along the complete internal value-adding supply chain is extremely huge but, to date, still unexplored by many manufacturing firms. The MES HYDRA will now finally enable you near-realtime to comfortably and reliably explore your process potential:

  • Where and what are your most dominant scrap reasons?
  • Where and what are your most dominant machine downtime reasons?
  • Where are your most dominant material idle times (WIP, that is not moving)?
  • Where, What, Why, When, Who, How ... : The list could go on with inter-related questions about machines, tools, workplaces, groups, cost centers, production orders, project orders, articles, materials (WIP), material batches, processes, QA-issues, staff/personnel, qualifications, etc ...

The following graphic shows typical questions from real life examples, that are being answered with HYDRA - just a mouseclick away! And the list could go on ...

Automotive Vendors, Food & Beverage Producers, Pharma Industries:

Comply with all your production documentation & material traceability requirements (automotive: ISO/TS 16949; Food & Beverages / Pharma: FDA requirements)

Rolls & Coils Manufacturers:

Trace your rolls and coils, including additional material batches such as in: (1) base paper rolls in printing & packaging or (2) mother coils in metal slitting or (3) carpet rolls, etc ...

Summary

HYDRA becomes a strategic tool that you rely on to ensure and enhance your production excellence. It makes your operational areas of PRODUCTION, PERSONNEL and QUALITY extremely transparent and uncovers the most prevalent systematic process disturbances in your environment. By eliminating these unwanted negative process influences, and permanently monitoring the results, the complete process will be improved to the maximum possible, which then translates into improved utilization, effectiveness, efficiency ... and in reduced production costs and eventually in higher turnover and, finally, into higher profits!