This is not your father’s MES

The MES term has been around for years as that gray “space” between the plant floor and the ERP or business system. There are literally hundreds of suppliers who offer MES products. One problem is no supplier meets all the needs of any particular manufacturing company. Another problem is, because each manufacturing operation is different, custom solutions are required to achieve meaningful connectivity between processes, machines and applications. Custom solutions usually translate into custom code – and that’s something everyone wants to avoid. Here lies the problem with the whole MES space.

This problem was highlighted by Kevin Harding with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals at the 2008 ARC Forum in Orlando earlier this month, who said, “We would rather compromise on our requirements than write custom software.”

At that same ARC Forum, I ran into Joel Nash from As One Technologies. I had originally met Joel a few years earlier when an ex-coworker introduced us. As it turns out, Joel and his group have been working on a product called Catalyst, an appropriately-named MES product that doesn't require custom software. Based on event-driven Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs), Catalyst automates both the creation of new components and the assembly of "solutions" of interconnected components.

Components are autonomous objects that perform specific functions and react to events as defined. With Catalyst’s IDE (Integrated Development Environment) a non-programmer can visually mix and match pre-built components from libraries to assemble semi-custom solutions (applications).

I can't do As One Technologies or Catalyst justice in a couple paragraphs, so I'm featuring their white paper, Simplifying Integration Logic Development, where you can read more about it. This framework allows suppliers and systems integrators to develop re-usable, industry-specific or application-specific components that can subsequently be combined to create semi-custom systems.

Let's face it. MES is complex and every implementation is going to require some level of customization. With development tools like this, manufacturers have a hope of achieving more widespread inter-process integration. Your father's MES was typically custom code. This is not your father's MES.

I want to wrap up with an ARC White Paper that summarizes the challenges that manufacturers from all disciplines discussed at the ARC Forum in Orlando earlier this month.

If this topic is of interest to you, don't forget to frequent our Manufacturing Intelligence Portal which covers MES, ERP, Asset Management, Process Optimization, Quality, LIMS, etc.

Enjoy the rest of this Automation Weekly!

Rick Zabel
Vice President, Publisher

Simplifying Integration Logic Development
by Joel Nash, As One Technologies
As business operations evolve they require richer and more widespread inter-process integration. Because each case involves a unique combination of technologies and business rules, shrink-wrapped MES packages cannot implement the rich integration that is needed. The requirement goes well beyond communication pipes and protocols, integration requires developing custom software. The problem is that custom software is difficult to develop and maintain.

Read full white paper

Manufacturers from All Disciplines Discuss Key Challenges
By Larry O'Brien, ARC Advisory Group
The 2008 ARC Forum in Orlando highlighted some of the key challenges faced by end users across all manufacturing disciplines. End users from Dow, Boeing, Bristol Meyers Squibb and General Motors talked about some of the recent key projects they implemented, lessons learned, and obstacles overcome. Many of these revolved around common themes of getting the best possible performance out of your employees and your partners, leveraging standardization while making room for site specific requirements, and leveraging technology to create a real business value proposition.

Read full white paper

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