ManufIT.com

My suspicion is that many Manufacturing organizations are very wary of the big ERP systems and their natural inclination will continue be to look to more specialized solutions directed at manufacturing. While I’ve no evidence, I think that:

1. Having MES embedded into a larger ERP system says to Manufacturing that they will have little, if any, say on how the system will be supported, upgraded, or configured, and that Manufacturing will always be subordinate to Finance’s requirements.

2. Manufacturing will think that their specific needs will be compromised because what the rest of the ERP system configuration will require. Manufacturing will feel that this will require manufacturing practice changes and training costs that Manufacturing will strongly resist.

3. Manufacturing has seen the trauma that accompanied the implementation of the ERP system and the huge price tag associated with it. They hate paying the “ERP Tax” anyway and don’t want to dilute their arguments about having to pay it. Further, an integrated system may move the amortization of the ERP system from “overhead” into “direct” cost.

The more technology savvy MES vendors and manufacturing execs will argue that the implementation of a independent, manufacturing-specific MES system will not detract from the overall need for integration as both the MES systems and the ERP systems are moving to web-service-based interfaces which enables rich integration of disparate systems.

Roland Smith
http://techmatters.rnsmith.com

Roland, I agree with everything you just said…and believe it all to be true. So much so, that this is what we have been preaching and selling for 12 years now. However, I am wondering if depsite all of this, the ERP companies will get good enough functionality to make it the most reasonable solution to implement for 80% of the MES needs. There will always be the need to have stand-alone best of breed MES solutions for many reasons. Thanks for your reply!
-scott

[...] have often wondered who is going to “win” in the MES space - ERP or the Automation vendors.  This move would appear to be a swing in the direction of ERP winning the battle for [...]

I think that Automation Vendors has high chances to capture the MES market when compared to the ERP Vendors. The reason being most of the MES functionalities like Automate Data Collection mainly required for Tracking Tracing and Genealogy and critical KPI (Key Performance Indicators)are closely coupled with the Automation Systems. It is also very easy for the Automation Vendors to convince the manufacturing companies showcasing the level of integration that is required between MES and Control Systems is complex when compared with MES and ERP Systems.
Most of the manufacturing companies would interface ERP and MES through some conventional methods.

Thanks
Vivek