Be the Leader When Choosing an MES: 10 Questions to Find the Right Partner

At the center of every successful smart factory sits one key enabler: the Manufacturing Execution System (MES). It is the operational backbone that connects strategy with execution, guiding people, machines, and processes to work together in real time. Choosing an MES, however, is not just a technology decision. It is a business-defining one. The right system can help a company adapt, scale, and lead for years. The wrong one can slow progress, limit flexibility, and block innovation.

Most Request for Information (RFIs) and Request for Proposal (RFPs) documents effectively compare technical and functional features, but they often miss what truly matters: how well a partner can be trusted over the long term. The ten questions that follow are not designed to replace formal evaluations. They are not checklist items to score, but conversation starters that reveal how an MES partner thinks, evolves, and supports its customers beyond the implementation phase. Think of them as a complement to traditional procurement methods. They focus on what determines lasting success: alignment, reliability, and shared vision.

How to Use These Questions

Use this checklist to encourage open discussion among leadership, operations, and IT teams. Identify priorities before meeting with potential partners, then revisit the same questions during those conversations. Pay attention to both the substance of the answers and how they are delivered. These questions are not exhaustive. Each manufacturer has unique needs, but the goal is to look past functionality and pricing to understand mindset, culture, and long-term fit.

This approach helps organizations:

• Spot blind spots in the evaluation process;
• Align teams around what truly matters;
• Assess partners on trust, philosophy, and staying power rather than marketing claims.

Questions on the Product

These questions dig into the system itself:  how it’s built, how it grows, and how it drives transformation beyond production. A great MES should not only manage today’s operations but also enable the factory of the future.

1. How scalable is the MES as production expands, diversifies, or globalizes?
   Scalability is a sign of product maturity. This question explores whether the MES can handle more plants, lines, and users without performance loss or major rework. The answer shows if the system’s architecture was designed for long-term growth or just for a single-site implementation.
2. How easily can the MES be upgraded without disrupting operations?
   Upgrades are often the hidden cost of ownership. This helps assess whether updates can be deployed seamlessly, preserving configurations and integrations. A well-engineered MES should make modernization routine, not a restart, allowing customers to stay current without reimplementation anxiety.
3. How is the underlying architecture designed to support future needs, not just today’s?
   This question uncovers the system’s design philosophy. It looks for are core that is built on modularity, openness, and flexibility. These are key characteristics that allow any industrial software to be better prepared for future capabilities and integrations. The architecture determines not just how well it works today, but how long it stays relevant.
4. How does the MES contribute to broader digital transformation, not just production execution?
   The value of MES lies in what it enables, not what it controls. This question probes whether the system acts as the operational backbone for transformation. This keeps the focus on connecting data, empowering workers, and driving intelligence across the enterprise. This also helps reveal whether the MES is simply a production system or a true catalyst for change.

Questions on the Organization

The strength of any MES offering depends on the strength of the company behind it. Technology evolves fast, and manufacturers need partners that are structurally prepared to innovate, financially equipped to sustain growth, and visionary enough to help customers anticipate what’s next.

5. How is innovation embedded within the company’s structure and culture?
   Innovation should be part of a company’s operating system, not an occasional initiative. This question helps reveal whether innovation is institutionalized through dedicated R&D budgets, cross-functional collaboration, and measurable outcomes tied to product evolution. It exposes how ideas move from concept to release and whether innovation is treated as a strategic investment or a reactive response to customer requests.
6. What is the company’s vision for the “factory of the future,” and how does MES fit into it?
   Every technology provider has a destination in mind, and that destination says everything about where their roadmap is heading. Ask them to paint a vivid picture of what the factory of the future looks like from a manufacturer’s perspective. The goal is to understand their view of transformation, not just technology. Their answer shows whether they believe the factory of the future is human-centered, fully automated, or adaptive, and whether their product strategy reflects that belief. Equally important, ask them to define what MES means in that vision. This is one of the most revealing questions you can ask. MES is the most fragmented industrial software category in existence, both in definition and in application. Each company, and each industry, interprets it differently. Some see it as production control; others see it as the digital backbone that connects execution with analytics, AI, and enterprise systems. Knowing their definition clarifies what they truly deliver today and what they intend to build tomorrow.
7. What makes the company an industry leader, and how does it plan to stay one?
   This is a simple question that separates ambition from reality. It forces an organization to define what leadership means to them and how they sustain it over time. True leadership is not about claiming to be at the top of a quadrant; it’s about demonstrating how excellence is maintained. The most telling answers go beyond metrics. They describe how the company contributes to standards bodies, collaborates with ecosystem partners, and leads conversations that move the industry forward. They also reveal focus on where the organization chooses to double down, where it is innovating next, and how it balances risk with long-term vision.  The details that surface (about processes, priorities, and philosophy, etc.) can expose more about a company’s future than any sales pitch ever could.

Questions on the Engagement

How a company works with its customers often matters more than what it sells. These questions focus on what the relationship actually looks like before, during, and long after implementation

8. How does the company help customers realize measurable business outcomes from MES adoption?
   Successful MES implementations aren’t defined by going live on time; they’re defined by achieving tangible improvements in performance, quality, and agility. This question uncovers whether the company focuses on outcomes rather than deliverables. It helps reveal if they have a structured approach (such as benchmarking, ROI tracking, or performance reviews, etc.)  that keeps the focus on transformation rather than simple deployment.
9. What does long-term customer success look like after implementation?
   True success is not maintenance, it’s momentum. This question differentiates between companies that keep systems running and those that help customers evolve. Maintenance is about fixing issues and applying updates; long-term success is about driving new value, including identifying additional use cases, improving processes, and sustaining measurable gains year after year. The goal is to see whether the company’s customer success teams act as reactive support or proactive partners invested in continuous improvement. How does the company capture and use customer feedback to improve the product and experience?
   Continuous improvement depends on listening. This question uncovers how feedback is gathered, prioritized, and acted upon — whether through formal advisory boards, user groups, or direct collaboration. It also helps reveal how much influence customers actually have on product direction and service refinement.
10. How are customers included in feedback loops that shape both the product and experience?
    A mature MES company treats feedback as part of its development process, not as a courtesy. This question examines how customers contribute to roadmap discussions, feature prioritization, and user experience design. It reveals how deeply the company listens, whether input flows into real enhancements, and how much influence customers have in steering future direction. The stronger the feedback loop, the more aligned the partnership becomes over time.

From Selection to Leadership

Selecting an MES is about much more than technology. It is about choosing a company you can trust to grow with you. A partner who can help turn your digital plans into operational reality.

The right MES connects every person, process, and site to the same information and the same truth. It helps your business become more agile, more consistent, and more prepared for what comes next.

Leaders know that transformation is not a one-time project but a continuous process. Choosing the right partner ensures you can keep moving forward, no matter how the industry changes.