Making a ‘MES’ out of your systems

By Mihir Gulabbhai, ERP specialist, Epic

In today’s fast-paced manufacturing industry, businesses are constantly seeking ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and drive revenue growth. Advanced MES is a digital solution that promises to do just that.

Advanced MES, or Advanced Manufacturing Execution System, is a real-time monitoring and analysis tool that automatically tracks operational resources, such as machines and humans, to optimise production efficiencies and operational performance. It provides insights into operational weaknesses, aids in maximising production outputs, and reduces costs, ultimately enabling companies to make informed strategic decisions and gain a competitive edge in the industry.

One of the most significant benefits of Advanced MES is its ability to replace traditional organisational models with new opportunities to expand into Industry 4.0 with service-based and real-time sensor data. This allows businesses to improve their revenue growth and adopt new models that align with the changing manufacturing landscape.

Another key benefit of Advanced MES is its ability to eliminate manual data collection and empower employees with easy-to-use touchscreen platforms. This not only streamlines processes and reduces errors but also enables digital transformation, which is vital in today’s data-driven world.

Advanced MES also offers improved scheduling capabilities, allowing businesses to gain real-time insights into machine performance, flexible schedule updates, and ‘what-if’ shift impacts. This results in improved overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and plant productivity, ultimately maximising the availability, performance, and quality of operational resources and manufactured items.

Furthermore, Advanced MES provides analysis and visibility into scrap and downtime, giving leaders a better understanding of their operational weaknesses and allowing them to capitalise on opportunities to improve their processes. This, in turn, leads to rapid time-to-value and increased profitability.

Advanced MES also offers energy management capabilities, which monitor and analyse resource energy consumption to schedule workload in a way that reduces the factory’s total power demand, with more control over variations. This translates into energy savings, which can have a significant impact on a business’s bottom line.

In addition, Advanced MES provides preventative maintenance capabilities, scheduling corrective maintenance actions prior to the occurrence of machine and tool failures. This helps companies to minimise downtime and maintain consistent productivity levels, leading to improved responsiveness and schedule performance.

Finally, Advanced MES offers improved data consolidation and analysis with the use of Epicor Data Analytics, a scalable, powerful, and easy-to-use digital graphical business intelligence tool that consolidates data from multiple sources, provides insights, and helps organisations make better-informed strategic decisions.

In conclusion, Advanced MES is a valuable digital solution that enables companies to optimise their production processes, reduce costs and increase revenue growth. Its capabilities, such as real-time monitoring and analysis, improved scheduling, preventative maintenance and energy management, provide businesses with a competitive edge in the rapidly changing manufacturing landscape. By adopting Advanced MES, companies can achieve digital transformation, streamline their operations, and capitalise on opportunities to improve their processes and maximise their profitability.

Speak to one of our experienced consultants about how your business can benefit by using Advanced MES: www.epicerp.co.za or email in**@ep*****.za.