Product variations are a particular challenge for manufacturers faced with an increasingly competitive landscape and ever more complex assemblies. Choosing the right MES allows some of the key issues to be addressed right from the very start.

In the modern manufacturing environment, the desire for increasingly complex assemblies, product variations, and customization is presenting significant challenges. Yet, the ability to accommodate these variations and tailor specifications for the final customer is also a valuable capability that can deliver a strong competitive advantage. Traditionally, however, achieving this balance has been difficult while maintaining timely production and ensuring consistent quality.

In a conventional manufacturing environment, the journey to creating a complex product begins with a customer request and a purchase order. Normally, this purchase order is created at the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) level and thus feeds into the main business processes. However, while all the characteristics and specific requirements have been specified within the ERP, and it is capable of defining if the bill of material is different, it is not necessarily capable of translating this information onto the shop floor and actual manufacturing processes. Usually, if the process of assembly or transformation of raw materials is different, the ERP is not capable of managing this critical step in creating a final product.

In the traditional approach to manufacturing, a standard production process is typically executed, and it is only at the end of this manufacturing process that any unique specifications or variations and customization elements are included. Not only does this increase the time needed for production, but errors also become more likely and harder to detect.

However, with their different functionalities and capabilities, modern Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) are able to address these challenges by helping to manage complex manufacturing processes for customizable products.

The Power of the Right MES

Although advanced MES can help in providing support for variation in manufacturing, this is only possible if the MES is capable of reading the characteristics and configurations that are set at the ERP level and then translating this into the shop floor. These variations, established at the ERP level, are subsequently passed to the operator as specific work instructions and unique machine configurations for the setup of the specific process, for example. This is one of the main advantages of sophisticated and comprehensively functional MES.

The goal is for the end user, via the MES, to have a single source of ‘truth’ for the information that is used to establish and execute a manufacturing process from beginning to end. With a suitable MES, no additional tools are needed to execute this function. The MES will automatically determine, for example, that changing the colour of an item will require reconfiguring the equipment, such as setting a different curing temperature to match the specific paint characteristics. When the execution and standard operating procedures (SOP) required for the manufacturing process differ due to product variation, these configurations are established by a process engineer. They will create all the individual requirements and activities that need to be executed on the manufacturing shop floor, but it is the MES that informs all the necessary process changes to reflect the product variations as they are established at the earliest stages of creating the order.

The engineering process needs to be established and configured at the MES level or on a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system, depending on the use case and the complexity. The MES will then automatically translate this information into clear instructions for operators, with all the necessary functions determined in advance to ensure manufacturing and assembly is both efficient and achievable. Ultimately, the product that will be delivered to the customer is the one that is expected.

Without a sophisticated MES, all of the separate order data would need to be gathered from the ERP and then transferred to the shop floor for translation into specific actions on individual machines, components, or processes to deliver the right finished product.

The MES Advantage

The advantage of having all the customized manufacturing functions configured at the MES level is much more than saving time in terms of the man-hours spent transferring information between systems and reconfiguring process steps. While an advanced MES also allows easier production of more complex products with more variation, a more significant benefit comes from the critical quality control and assurance aspects when manufacturing complex products. A suitable MES is able to immediately improve the quality of products by avoiding reworks and changeovers as it has all the information related to any customization right from the start of the production process. It is therefore not possible to execute a miss-step or use the wrong component because the complete assembly process is specified in advance. The MES will identify any incorrect process or elements immediately when operators record and read the component barcode, for example, and will flag an error, informing the operator that this step is not compatible with the assembly specified. Operators are then required to enter the correct component code for the assembly process to continue, for instance. In addition, there is a data path that runs right the way through the manufacture of a particular product, allowing any quality issues that do emerge to be identified and corrected quickly.

With a fully functional MES deployed, manufacturers can also rapidly address any deviations – changes to a manufacturing process that emerge during production. It gives operators the capability to identify and address problems without necessarily needing an engineer. A quality engineer still needs to approve any changes, but the deviation function allows the senior operator on the shop floor to flag any issues and make changes to the process via the MES. This system automatically notifies the engineering team of any changes made. Once approved, where appropriate, any future selections will then include the new process steps within the MES right from the start. The outcome is a smoother process and fewer reworks and quality control issues.

In contrast to a conventional manufacturing environment, choosing the right MES allows customized products to be delivered quickly without causing disruptions on the shop floor and while significantly reducing the scope for manufacturing errors. This is a particularly valuable function as products become more customizable, and the ability to offer unique or specialized products becomes a key competitive advantage.