Fred Genett

1. Manufacturing Execution System (MES)

definition
2. MES Activities
3. MES System Levels as defined in ISA-95
4. MES System Level Interactions

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Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), are information
technology systems that manage manufacturing
operations in factories.

The scope of such systems in terms of activities may

include:
 Management of product definitions
 Management of resources
 Scheduling (production processes)
 Dispatching production orders
 Execution of production orders
 Collection of production data
 Production performance analysis
 Production Track & Trace

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◦ Management of product definitions
Storage, version control and exchange with other systems of
master data such as product production rules, bill of material,
bill of resources, process set points and recipe data which are
all focused on defining how to make a product.

◦ Management of resources
Registration, exchange and analysis of resource information,
aiming to prepare and execute production orders with resources
of the right capabilities and availability.

◦ Scheduling (production processes)

These activities determine the production schedule as a collection
of work orders to meet the production requirements These
orders are typically received from enterprise resource
planning or specialized advanced planning and
scheduling systems.

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◦ Dispatching production orders
Depending on the type of production processes this may
include further distribution of batches, runs and work
orders, issuing these to work centers and adjustment to
unanticipated conditions.

◦ Execution of production orders

Although actual execution is done by Process
control systems, an MES may perform checks on resources
and inform other systems about the progress of production
processes.

◦ Collection of production data

Collection, storage and exchange of process data, equipment
status, material lot information and production.

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◦ Production performance analysis
Create useful information from raw collected data about
the current status of production such as Work In
Progress (WIP) overview as well as the production
performance of the past period for Overall Equipment
Effectiveness (OEP) or similar Performance Indicators.

◦ Production Track & Trace

Registration and retrieval of related information in order
to present a complete history of lots, orders or
equipment.

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*Levels are references to ISA-95, "Enterprise-Control System Integration”

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Examples of systems acting on ISA-95 level 4 are:

◦ Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

◦ Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
◦ Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
◦ Human Resource Management (HRM)

 To PLM: production test results

 From PLM: product definitions, bill of operations (routings),
electronic work instructions, equipment settings
 To ERP: production performance results, produced and
consumed material
 From ERP: production planning, order requirements
 To CRM: product tracking and tracing information
 From CRM: product complaints
 To HRM: personnel performance
 From HRM: personnel skills, personnel availability

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Examples of systems acting on ISA-95 level 3 are:

◦ Production Information Management System (PIMS)

◦ Warehouse Management System (WMS)
◦ Computerized Maintenance Management
System (CMMS)

 To PIMS: quality test requests, sample lots, statistical process

data
 From PIMS: quality test results, product certificates, testing
progress
 To WMS: material resource requests, material definitions,
product deliveries
 From WMS: material availability, staged material lots, product
shipments
 To CMMS: equipment running data, equipment assignments,
maintenance requests
 From CMMS: maintenance progress, equipment capabilities,
maintenance schedule

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Systems acting on ISA-95 level 2 are:

◦ Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA)

◦ Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC)
◦ Distributed Control Systems (DCS)
◦ Batch Automation Systems

Information flows between MES and these process control

systems are roughly similar:
 To DCS: work instructions, recipes, set points
 From DCS: process values, alarms, adjusted set points,
production results

Plant floor data is first collected and diagnosed for real-time

control in a DCS or SCADA system then connected to these
Level 2 systems for exchanging plant floor data.

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 FredGenett@gmail.com
Linkedin.com/in/FredGenett

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