1、MES Guide for Executives: Why and How to Select, Implement, and Maintain a Manufacturing Execution System Bianca ScholtenAuthor Bianca ScholtenImages Bettina Logge-Mensing Layout challenges associated with cultural and convergence-related conflicts rooted firmly in a lack of understanding of each ot
2、hers domains. Its not hard to deduce that these “soft” challenges, if not understood and mitigated, will inevitably have a significant negative impact on the success of any MES initiative.This is not a new observation, and these are certainly not new challenges. The six million dollar question is th
3、is: Will Operations and IT leadership learn that until theres clear alignment between their respective strategies, goals, and metrics, they and their company have little hope of successfully rolling out any systematic, high return manufacturing solutions? Another important question: How can everyone
4、 Forewordvi MES Guide for Executivesaffected better understand the nuances of how MES implementations impact not just specific workflows and business processes, but how they drive the need for functional and cultural convergence?I contend that the basic alignment of Operations and IT strategies, goa
5、ls, and metrics, and the very necessary convergence between Operations and IT, will come about only through the education of both parties on 1) the functional components and activity models of MES, 2) their boundaries and touch-points with ERP, 3) the recognition that IT and Operations both bring es
6、sential capabilities and world views to this equation, and 4) that one without the other will not succeed.This brings me back to Biancas commendable goal of documenting this multifaceted sum of ideas, capabilities, and manufacturing experience in an easy-to-understand way. Her down-to-earth, anecdot
7、al writing style is easy to read, and she has a refreshing knack for simplifying the most complex structures into clear, well organized content. I believe this book will go a long way towards educating decision makers at all levels and driving the convergence of Operations and IT that is so essentia
8、l for manufacturers to succeed in this new economy.Happy reading!John DyckChairman of the Board for MESA InternationalviiContentsAbout the Author .ixIntroduction .xiChaptEr 1 We Dont Have an MES 1ChaptEr 2 MES? Whats That? .13ChaptEr 3 What Does MES Deliver? .33ChaptEr 4 How Do You Buy an MES? 59Cha
9、ptEr 5 Whats It Like, Implementing, Adopting, and 79 Maintaining an MES?ChaptEr 6 Can We Roll Out the Same MES in All Our Plants? .99ChaptEr 7 Why Should We Use ISA-95 125Bibliography 135Glossary . 139Appendix A 145Appendix B 149Index 153Sponsors . 157viii MES Guide for ExecutivesixAbout the AuthorB
10、ianca Scholten is a partner of, and management consultant at TASK24, one of the largest system integrators and consultancy service providers in the Netherlands and Belgium in the area of technical automation. She advises industrial companies in Europe and the United States on the definition and real
11、ization of their manufacturing IT strategies. She is a voting member of the ISA95 committee. Ms. Scholten is also the author of the book The Road to Integration: A Guide to Applying the ISA-95 Standard in Manufacturing, for which she received the Thomas G. Fischer award and the Raymond D. Molloy awa
12、rd, and a contributing author for The Hitchhikers Guide to Manufacturing. In 2008, Ms. Scholten received the ISA Standards and Practices Award for her outstanding contribution to the technical report Using ISA-88 and ISA-95 Together. She has published many papers in trade journals on subjects relate
13、d to vertical integration and technical automation and has trained hundreds of professionals in applying the ISA-88 and ISA-95 standards.x MES Guide for Executivesxi“Are you already working on a second book?” Dennis Brandl, editor of the ISA-95 Enterprise-Control System Integration series of standar
14、ds, asked me during the ISA EXPO 2007 in Houston.“Well, Im thinking of writing a book about MES and ISA-95, for the boards of directors and management at manufacturing companies,” I answered. “Ive noticed that many of my clients have trouble demonstrating to management what a manufacturing execution
15、 system is and what it can do for you. The books and white papers currently available on that subject are all targeted to a technical audience. Theres nothing for the management level.”“Thats a good idea,” Brandl said; then he noted, “It should be a small book, one they could finish on the plane.”I
16、thought that was a good starting point. A book short enough that CEOs, CFOs, general managers, controllers, plant managers, production managers, and IT managers at manufacturing enterprises could read it cover to cover during a single flight, so to speak. Something that would give them a quick first
17、 impression of manufacturing execution systems; a book that answered questions such as “What is MES?,” “How can MES help us improve our business results?,” and “What can we expect when we start using MES?”The following year, I further elaborated this plan. During my daily work as a management consul
18、tant, I collected examples, spoke with colleagues, and interviewed IT managers and production managers whove garnered a great deal of MES experience within their companies. This resulted in a wealth of information, the most important parts of which are summarized in this book. “Why would we need a m
19、anufacturing execution system? We follow a SAP-unless policy,” you may be thinking. Chapter 1 addresses the question Introductionxii MES Guide for Executiveswhether an ERP system can provide sufficient support for plant processes, and if so, under what circumstances. Your company may not need an MES
20、. In that case, you can put the book down after chapter 1. But you might come to the conclusion after reading that chapter that your production processes are sufficiently complex that your ERP system doesnt adequately meet your plants information needs. In that case, read chapter 2 to find out exact
21、ly what an MES is, and chapter 3 for a rough overview of the costs and benefits of such a system. If you see opportunities for your company, then chapter 4 will tell you in global terms how an MES selection project should proceed, and chapter 5 spells out what your company can expect during implemen
22、tation and initial use of the MES. If your company has multiple production sites, it may be possible to use one and the same MES in all your plants; chapter 6 contains advice on developing and maintaining a multi-site MES template. Finally, chapter 7 gives a birds-eye view of the ISA-95 series and h
23、ow it can help both people and information systems communicate better, internally and externally, during your MES projects.This book would not have been possible without the help and support of several organizations, companies, and individuals. My thanks go to WBF (The Forum for Automation and Manuf
24、acturing Professionals, formerly known as the World Batch Forum), whose yearly conferences offer professionals the opportunity to exchange information on best practices. Many WBF conference presentations have been a source of inspiration for this book. I also thank MESA (Manufacturing Enterprise Sol
25、utions Association International) for its congresses, white papers, and other sources of information that help manufacturing enterprises to reach a higher plane. Ive quoted from several MESA studies and publications in this book. And thank you, ISA, for making it possible to develop useful standards
26、 such as ISA-95, and for publishing specialized books in the field of manufacturing IT.I also extend my heartfelt thanks to all my interviewees; their real-world experience will help readers to understand what they can do to make an MES project successful. Thank you also, Gert-Jan van Dijk, Jos Hens
27、en, Wouter Huijs, Jan Kelderman, and Sjoerd van Staveren, for reviewing the draft Introduction xiiiversions. Your critical comments and useful tipsbased on your own practical experiencehave made an extremely valuable contribution to the quality of this book.And finally, of course, a big hug for my h
28、usband, family, in-laws, and friends; thank you all for providing an environment in which I found the relaxation, rest, and energy I needed to write this book. Bianca ScholtenRosmalen, the Netherlands, March 2009xiv MES Guide for ExecutivesSomeone thrust this book into your hand with the comment, “R
29、ead this! Its about MES.” So now, of course, youre thinking, “Why should I? We follow a SAP-unless policy, so we dont need a separate MES package.” But how exactly does that “unless” work? When is an ERP system sufficient for supporting activities on the shop floor, and what type of company is bette
30、r served by a dedicated solution to provide information to factory personnel? 1.1 Modern Countries, Primitive FactoriesIn recent decades, industrial companies have invested much time and money in machine and production line automation on one hand, and in ERP1systems on the other hand. Between these
31、two automation layers lies another, usually called the MES layer.2MES concerns the activities that take place within a manufacturing department. These include preparatory activities, such as detailed production scheduling and recipe management, but also retrospective activities, such as data collect
32、ion, reporting, and analysis. In many factories, the situation can be called primitive in regard to these activities. They use MS Excel for their detailed scheduling and reports, and MS Word to manage operator instructions and recipes. When there are advanced applications available, these come from
33、various vendors and are not integrated. Figure 1.1 shows a typical example of the kind of stand-alone applications that factories use. 1 See the glossary for an explanation of acronyms used in this book.2 For a more detailed explanation of the MES concept, see chapter 2.Chapter 1We Dont Have an MES2
34、 MeS Guide for executivesThis outdated situation leads to many problems. For example, on the management and supervisory level, one has no insight into the current production situation. If the production manager wants to determine the source of a problem, he or she must first walk over to local syste
35、ms in order to pull up the data files, then import these into a spreadsheet, and then reconcile the data with each other; only thenperhapswill the answer to the question be revealed. This process can sometimes consume more than two entire workdays. Its impossible for the operator, supervisor, or pla
36、nt manager to work proactively. Managements lack of insight into the actual production situation also becomes painfully clear when you zoom in on scheduling issues. True, the ERP system does create a production schedule, but it isnt yet tailored to the actual capacity of the production lines, nor ha
37、s it taken efficiency into account. Thats why in nearly every factory, youll find a scheduler who plans in Excel. These are people who carry around a great deal of knowledge in their heads. They really mustnt ever get sick or go on vacation, and they feel tremendously valued. The production departme
38、nt is completely dependent on this person. In the meantime, the plant managers asking herself whos really the boss. Figure 1.1 Typical example of the current level of automation in many factoriesWe Dont Have an MES 3Once the schedules complete, the supervisor prints out the production orders on pape
39、r, and places them in the proper order at the work stations. It remains to be seen whether this intended order will actually be followed. (Believe it or not, Ive seen one of these stacks fly into the air when a door opened.) Employees on the production line have no insight into the internal dependen
40、cies among orders, and innocently threaten promised delivery dates.Another disadvantage of the current situation is that the operators cant concentrate on their most important task, namely, controlling the process. Operators spend hours copying data over from one system to the other. This is time-co
41、nsuming and error-prone, and it results in data becoming available to other departments and systems only much later.3By using a variety of nonintegrated systems, the problem of master data also rears its head. For example, if the factorys going to start using materials from new suppliers in the prod
42、uction process, or if it introduces new recipes, you have to update the master data in all those stand-alone systems. This is a time-consuming and error-prone process. If the master data conflict with one another, this can in the worst case lead to ordering the wrong raw materials or manufacturing e
43、nd products that dont meet the specifications.Many factories are accustomed to reporting average raw material consumption and production results back to the office after each production run, instead of the actual pounds or gallons consumed and produced. As a resultand depending on the type of indust
44、ryone must count or measure inventories on a daily or monthly basis and correct the ERP systems administrative inventory. Which means these factories dont really have their processes under control. With a little bad luck, the inaccuracy of the administrative inventory can 3 But note that this situat
45、ion also has an advantage, namely, that operators have more “feeling” for the process and for the correctness of the data as a result of their hands-on involvement. This is a point to consider in implementing an MES.4 MeS Guide for executiveseven cause production stops because the proper raw materia
46、ls arent available. I dont have to explain to you just how expensive an hour or two of downtime is.Come on, guys. This is the twenty-first century. Theres got to be another way!1.2 .But We Have SAP!1.2.1 SAP Unless.Among the companies for whom I consult, more than 80 percent use SAP. Moreover, for r
47、easons of standardization and reuse of efforts, and to limit maintenance costs, many opt for a SAP-unless policy. So when the production manager knocks on ITs door and asks for a specific scheduling system, the IT manager says, “No need. SAP can do that.” And if the production manager then asks for
48、a recipe management application, his colleague answers, “SAP can do that, too.” The production manager has to have a silken tongue if he then wants to convince IT that a plant dashboard really isnt the same thing as a data warehouse.Unfortunately, the incomprehension within manufacturing companies w
49、alls reaches even further. Consider controllers who dont see why plant managers want detailed numbers. We see from the monthly numbers that theres too much waste. How much more does she want to know? Surely she already sees what she needs to do! And sometimes you have engineers who are instinctively against using SAP on the work floorAnd then I guess youll want SAP to control the PLCs, too!but they lack the authority, communicative skills, and power of persuasion to alter the SAP-unless policy. In the end, the individual with the bi
