Rockwell Automation is reinventing its manufacturing execution system in an attempt to move away from the confusing nomenclature of "MES," which means many things to different people.
Instead, the company will focus on six production disciplines that define what needs to get done in a manner that is logical, less expensive to engineer and truly integrated.
Branded under Rockwell's existing FactoryTalk name, the new strategy outlines an integrated suite of applications that is built on top of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that will also allow for easy integration with third-party applications.
The "FactoryTalk Production Disciplines" include: performance and visibility (creation and display of key metrics and content in the context of operations); production management (order execution, tracking and interactive manufacturing process control); quality and compliance (automated quality control, analysis and regulatory reporting); asset management (integrated equipment maintenance, change management, audit); data management (events and process management, data synchronization, third-party connectivity); and design and configuration (implementation of control systems and interface to PLM systems).
While Rockwell has been quietly rolling out products that conform to SOA, such as RSBizWare PlantMetrics and historian software, the company felt it was necessary to map out its strategy prior to the announcement early in 2006 of new modules for asset management and integration.
According to Kevin Roach, vice president of Rockwell Software, the company has been building out its FactoryTalk services for a few years now and will continue to invest "hundreds of millions over the next few years, for sure," he said in an interview. Rockwell plans to acquire companies to fill in gaps in production management, performance and visibility, which includes manufacturing intelligence functionality.
It will take time to build out the model, he said, as there issues to address around SOA security and standards. "We'll be substantially there in five years," he said. "And every year our customers will see the value as we evolve products and integrate them."
To be clear, the concept of MES is still a valuable business proposition, Roach noted, pointing to a study done by Industry Directions that reports conclusive evidence that MES does provide considerable performance advantages to plants. The report found that companies using MES improved profitability four times greater than those not using MES. Those same companies experienced 34% greater cost reduction, 15% greater yield improvements and 37% greater manufacturing cycle time cuts.
The name MES, however, has always generated confusion for customers who have trouble determining all that it does. That's why, Roach said, as Rockwell moves forward the acronym "MES" will be absent.
The value of MES becomes clearer when firms tie together business and plant systems and find competitive advantage, he said during his keynote address at ISA Expo 2005 in Chicago.
This article was repurposed from the December 2005 issue of Managing Automation magazine.