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We were doing a MES requirements and selection engagement for a large Medical Devices company that had just spent A LOT of money on SAP globally.  They were determined (as they should be) to give SAP a fair shake on whether it could handle the MES requirements.  So the final selection was between SAP and other best of breed MES solution providers.  At the time, SAP only had one regulated customer that was using PP/PI for MES.

The customer had Account Managers that were responsible for interfacing between the business and IT.  One of them had this famous quote (which is probably only funny if you have been in MES for a while):

“SAP has like 40,000 tables, surely some of them can do MES.”

Check out Kevin’s post:

http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2008/02/a-little-differ.html

Be careful…it is addicting.

At least once a month I have a customer say something like “That is like paying you to do a quote.” Or, “I am not going to pay you to do a quote.” 

MES solutions are among the toughest Manufacturing IT projects out there.  They touch IT, Operations, Automation and Engineering, Quality, ERP, and most of all PEOPLE!  So, approaching a MES project without a plan, some specifications, a few requirements, or at least something written down, is sure disaster.

Here is my house analogy:

You want a new custom home, or at least you think you are ready to embark on the journey.  You are not sure what it is going to cost, but you think you know what you want.  You show up to talk with the builder with no prints, no specs, knowing nothing about the types of cabinets, fixtures, carpet, or appliances that you want, and you want the builder to tell you how much it is going to cost.  You sit down with the builder and start saying things like “we want 3 bedrooms and 3 full-bathrooms.”  Image the builder’s position….do you want granite counters?  Walk-in showers?  Closets the size of small bedrooms?  How is he supposed to help you if you have not defined your requirements?

In the house analogy, this is where the designer and/or architect come into play.  You could also use a builder that does “Design-Build.”  In either case, you typically define what it is you want so that you can get what you want from the final result.  Also, this allows you to go get “apples-to-apples” quotes from multiple builders.

As for MES, most manufacturers don’t know where to start in defining their MES requirements.  And, many vendors are eager to get started on something, so they will start building something for the manufacturer without designing the entire solution.  In our house analogy, this is what I call the Tree House analogy.  If you don’t plan it out up front, your house will start looking like a tree house all thrown together.

Final Suggestions:

• Define your MES Requirements up front - if you don’t know how to do this, call me.
• With your definition in hand, seek input from a few builders.
• Start Small, but with a final design in mind.

We are often asked to help justify Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) solutions in order to get capital approval to move forward.  This is a monumental task because MES systems are very difficult to justify on hard savings.

One of the reasons MES solutions are hard to justify is they help you with many “soft” improvements.  Deming said “You cannot improve what you cannot see.”  MES solutions help you see what you need to improve, and help you systematize your improvements.  What is that worth?

Here are some practical items you can focus on for your justification:

1. What manual data collection can be eliminated?  What does that cost in real labor?  Not only in the people collecting the data, but those the scrub it, chart it, report it, and debate its accuracy. (Reduces Cost)

2. What “oops” problems could be eliminated with more synergy in the manufacturing process?  Wrong labels on parts or containers, shipping product that had questionable parts/processes, quality spills, adding value to known bad product? (Reduces Cost)

3.  Could you increase velocity or agility if you could manage complexity and proliferation of your products?  Would you still have to hire extra expediters?  Would you have to build the new line?  Would you be able to take on more work? (Increases Revenue)

4.  Could you provide better visibility into your operations for your customers?  What would better customer service do for your relationship with your existing customers?  Would they give you more work? (Increases Revenue)

5.  Have you had a quality spill you can quantify?  What did it cost?  What if you could eliminate or reduce the cost of the next one? (Reduces Cost)

As I write this, I think this post could be turned into a multi-part series…  Feel free to contact me if you need more ideas for justification.

I recently used Elance to make updates to my blog site.  It was a great experience.

There are lots of talented developers in the world just looking for a chance to impress clients and make a decent living at it.  On their site,  you can search for talent that meets your project needs.

Then, once the keyword searches find the companies (they call them providers) that can fulfill your needs, you can then search by Feedback, Reviews, and Hourly Rate.  I personally looked for those with 95% or better Feedback, at least 5 reviews, and an hourly rate up to $20/hour.

I used Candid Software for my first project and was extremely pleased with their work.  Someone once said (I think it was in The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman) “Work will get done where work gets done best.”  I believe Elance has figured this out and has a great way of getting work done.