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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.

As I was reading and catching up tonight, I just could not help but see the stark contrast in stories between Walgreens and General Motors.

Walgreens - Employees at This Walgreens Distribution Center Are More Able Than Disabled

http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2008/02/need-some-eager.html

General Motors - GM offers buyouts to 74,000

I know GM must do something to stop bleeding money, but it never fails that those companies that take care of their employees are healthier companies.

In an article by Bianca Scholten written for Automation World, a couple of questions were raised:

• Who should champion a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solution?
• Who should support an Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solution?

In this article, Bianca sites engineering and IT as the two functions within a manufacturing environment that could potentially support an MES solution.  I would also add operations and quality has two functions that need to be involved in MES solutions.  The customers of MES solutions are most likely to be operations and quality.  The providers of MES solutions are most likely to be engineering and IT.

In nearly 12 years of providing MES solutions, we have found that the most successful projects are when there is a great cross functional team that works together to define and provide the solution.  Most of our projects have been owned by the IT organization within the factory.  This works best when an IT organization is a “manufacturing IT” organization not an “administrative IT” organization.

Standards, best practices, and knowledge sharing, are all ways to help disciplines work together.  But at the end of the day, the best solutions are going to come out of teams that work together to define the problem, implement a maintainable solution, and drive business results with that solution.  This is way easier said than done.  Maybe the source of another post :-).

I have sold and worked with sales people that sell manufacturing solutions for my whole career. Here are some thoughts on what it takes to be successful - and - what I think works best with the customer:

1. Listen - find out what the customer is trying to do. Often sales people talk WAY TO TECHNICALLY, WAY TO EARLY in the process.

2. Talk with their terms - use their terms for everything. Customers don’t care that you call it a Production Order - if they call it a Work Order, you should call it a work order.

3. Demonstrate with their data - a standard demo does not work with these complex solutions. Take your customer’s data, terms, routes, parts, etc. and configure your software to demonstrate their processes.

Of course, there are many other selling tips and tricks, but these are some of the basics. Good luck selling.