to non-conformance issues twice as quickly as previously, it improved employee productivity an average of 18 percent by reducing meeting times at shift changes, and it decreased manufacturing cycle time by 7 percent, which amounts to four days of production. “By eliminating defects in components before they’re assembled into the final products, we reduce repairs and accelerate new builds,” says Moore.

KLA-Tencor is in the process of migrating from an Oracle ERP system to one provided by SAP AG, of Walldorf, Germany, and one of the project goals is to better align the ERP with the Datasweep MES. However, says Moore, “We don’t want to pay a high IT cost to customize the interfaces. It has taken us a couple of years to build the data bridges between our systems.” With support growing for the S95 integration standard from the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA), Moore believes software vendors such as SAP will build better standard interfaces to the MES.

Scalable and collaborative

Another major trend in MES is the demand for scalable solutions designed for collaborative manufacturing. Recently, the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) International, an organization of vendors and users dedicated to promoting MES solutions, released a white paper on the “Next-Generation Collaborative MES Model.” Described in the paper are the collaborative MES, or

c-MES, practices for publishing and distributing customer demands across the manufacturing supply chain.

Charlie Gifford, a senior project leader with GE Fanuc Automation Inc., in Albany, N.Y., described c-MES in a presentation at the 2004 MESA Conference, held near Chicago last September. Gifford says the new model redefines the core MES functions originally outlined by MESA, and now comprises eight major functions that interact with systems and people, inside and outside of the enterprise.

According to Gifford, the next-generation model highlights the following:

Public MES standards and methodologies have matured

The role of MES has expanded to the supply chain

Configurable MES libraries, templates and components have reduced development time and customization

c-MES requires business and IT skills

ROI is greater, due to more functionality at lower costs.

Tim Sowell, vice president of product strategy for Wonderware, an Invensys company based in Lake Forest, Calif., says he is seeing a dramatic increase in requests for proposals (RFPs) from companies looking for worldwide standardization on MES. “Our customers want scalable solutions to manage plants throughout the supply chain.” Sowell notes that, while the numbers of products manufacturers make are staying the same, and even increasing, the total number of worldwide manufacturing facilities is declining. “A machining line originally designed to make two products may now make 12 different products,” says Sowell.

The issues of flexibility, integration and geographical distribution are increasing demand for collaborative MES solutions. Many experts believe that the home-grown MES systems no longer fill the bill. New solutions will leverage scalable, reusable components, common data platforms and integration standards for linking the design, production, business, customer and supplier layers. As well, MES systems will need to address security and firewall issues, demand-driven manufacturing and supplier-managed inventories. Recognition of these needs, coupled with technology developments and acceptance of standards, will promote true collaborative solutions.

For more information, search keywords “MES” and “software” at www.automationworld.com

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