What is manufacturing software?
Manufacturing software, or manufacturing execution systems, manage and monitor
work-in-process on the factory floor as well as labor and production reporting.
Manufacturing systems may include work orders, workflow management,
receipt of goods, shipping, quality control, resource planning, maintenance, finite
scheduling, inventory and other areas.
The role of manufacturing software
The main role of manufacturing systems is to manage and monitor work-in-process on the factory floor. Plant
managers and production personnel use manufacturing execution software to
support strategies that are designed to integrate the disparate data streams a
company may have from its supply chain, factory floor, and enterprise resource
planning (ERP) system.
Most manufacturing execution software is designed to improve
asset productivity, reduce order-to-ship times, and eliminate costly rework.
Typically, industries that implement manufacturing execution software systems treat cycle-time, the total time to produce an order, as a key
performance indicator (KPI).
Manufacturing
execution software system benefits
The most key benefits include the
following:
Connect the enterprise to the plant for greater visibility
and control
Reduce lead time
Reduce manufacturing costs
Increase production throughput
Improve product quality
Reduce defects and scrap
Reduce efforts involved in compliance and governance
Reduce manufacturing cycle time
Reduce data entry time and manpower
Reduce work-in-progress (WIP)
Improve traceability
Reduce paperwork
Elements of manufacturing execution software
That depends on the software system provider. Some manufacturing systems
have to be purchased as a whole, without much if any customization. Other
systems can be purchased on a modular basis, so that organizations can choose
the functionality they need and only pay for what they are going to use. The
most common elements are as follows:
Scheduling, work order management, workflow management,
receipt of goods, shipping, quality control, resource planning, maintenance,
inventory, warehouse management, product/material/job tracking, OEE (overall
equipment effectiveness), production reporting, scrap reporting and downtime
reporting.
These manufacturing systems sometimes need to be customized and integrated
with a client’s existing enterprise systems to provide the most useful and
accurate information to the organization.
Key
features of manufacturing execution software systems
Ability to perform the desired tasks
Ability to be customized if needed
Ability to be integrated with other enterprise systems
Platform used to implement
When it comes to manufacturing execution software, each manufacturing organization will
have its own unique needs at any given point in time. A system that lends
itself to changes, integration and the addition of new modules are the features
that are becoming more and more important to MES software buyers.
