It was a year of mixed messages in the MES market, as manufacturers struggled to determine how manufacturing execution software could bring rapid returns during tough economic times.
For the most part, two approaches emerged: enterprise MES, which promotes a standardized global deployment of an application suite, as well as tight integration with business applications; and what has been described as “bite-sized” MES, or “digestible” solutions that can be implemented one piece at a time and deliver a quick ROI.
Which route a manufacturer took this year had a lot to do with its choice of vendor. Oracle, SAP, or even Invensys Operations Management, which this year reorganized around the concept of technology convergence and operational optimization, take manufacturers down the path of enterprise adoption. Meanwhile, best-of-breed, industry-specific MES players, such as Apriso, Aspen Technology, Camstar Systems, Eyelit, and iBASEt, focus on specific functions, such as energy management, quality management, or overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) metrics, that bring measurable value-add to an organization.
Of course, every MES vendor wove integration, visibility, and manufacturing intelligence (MI) into its product offerings this year. Rockwell Automation, for example, put heavy emphasis on its enterprise MI software, Factory-Talk VantagePoint. The product, which resulted from Rockwell’s acquisition of Incuity in 2008, analyzes and connects production and enterprise operations, making it a strategic enterprise investment for many manufacturers, though it is also a digestible application that can be layered on top of an existing MES.