There is perhaps no doubt on the sheer competency that the modern global market today has to offer their consumers.
However, along with keeping the sunnier side intact, it has equally managed to bring along the darker side. This day, modern global businesses see much stiffer competition in the market scenario.
As a result, today’s manufacturing landscape is not only complex but equally challenging too.
This is where the role play of a manufacturing execution system (MES) comes into the scenario. Keeping your company aside from it directly increases your organization’s vulnerability towards problems that can potentially make or break it.
Following are some of the potential risks that you may encounter in a manufacturing landscape sans an efficient MES.
- Coping issues with the cadence of change
- Data latency
- Material traceability
- Work-in-progress visibility
- Deadline
- Redundancy and precision issues
- Un-unified version of truth
If your organization has encountered any such situation or foresee it, it is high time for you to reconsider your approach to manufacturing.
SAP’s innovative manufacturing execution system (MES) not only makes it functional and one-of-a-kind but also solution oriented. From scheduling to dispatching, resource management, production management, data collection performance analysis to the final call of production track-and-trace, SAP extends intuitive design in each step.
Before focusing on why SAP MES System let’s take a look back, and understand what a manufacturing execution system is & its best practices.
What is the basic idea behind a MES system?
Fundamentally speaking, a manufacturing execution system is a computerized system used in manufacturing processes to track, control, and document the transformation of unprocessed materials to end products.
It streamlines the whole system by leveraging the capabilities of decision-makers with real-time information, in turn, optimizing production output.
SAP’s creative solution to this domain involves majorly four major governing factors of the model.
- Deployment technique: Both the accessibility of cloud and on-premise deployment.
- Simplistic integration technology: SAP seamlessly integrates its ERP with MES for the best of production.
- Flexibility: Perhaps the biggest yield of SAP modeling is that it uses a one-process model for its production to be flexible.
- High levels of visibility: SAP MES provides detailed production visibility at all levels of the process.
The architectural design of the SAP MES system
MES system in SAP ideally focuses on 11 core domains of manufacturing operations. Built with the vision to improve operation management in manufacturing, this model makes extensive use of IT applications.
The following is the list of capabilities that a SAP MES endows its user with.
- Operations or detailed sequencing
- Resource allocation and status
- Dispatching production unit
- Performance analysis
- Maintenance management
- Process management
- Quality management
- Data collection
- Product tracking and genealogy
- Labor management
- Document control
The direct benefit of SAP MES integration
Along with the core functions, SAP MES leverages manufacturers to overcome challenges of regulatory compliance set by the Food and Drug Administration Board (FDA) for regulated industries. To quote a few would be food and beverage, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, etc.
An MES maintains an ‘as-built’ or, in other words, device history that collects data, processes, and outcomes, for aligning compliance with the FDA.
While the benefits of a MES SAP integration in a business organization remain self-explanatory, here are some of the core areas that may further make you keener on its deployment.
- Increase in customer satisfaction
- Improved regulatory compliance
- Streamlined agility and time to market
- Efficient supply chain management
- Reduction in manufacturing cycle time
- Reduction of manual data-entry processes and paperwork
- Reduced order lead time
- Lower labor costs
- Reduced WIP inventory
- Machine utilization optimized
Newer features, newer capabilities
SAP always believes in steady growth. And that invariably reflects in the products. SAP MES has the improvements in it along with the former.
Centralized operations:
- Management-production: Production is managed with a unique serialized identification number.
- Production-based routing: Routing of materials is based on the production events
- Intuitive interfacing: users are enabled to access role-based touch-screen interface systems to support manufacturing workflows.
Automated data acquisition system:
- Automated sensitive data collection: all relevant and sensitive data important for successful workflow management like traceability, quality etc. are recorded.
- Compliance tracking: Continuous monitoring of production specifications.
- Alert notifications: Pre-determined non-conformance alerts are enabled whenever any deviation takes place.
- Auto Integration: auto-integrates the master data process for your ERP system.
Detection of tracking and resolution:
- Complete device history: development of complete device history for serialized products.
- Track-and-trace visibility: Provides track-and-trace visibility across the entire supply chain platform.
- Insightful manufacturing data: Analysis of manufacturing performance data to gain insights into areas where you can increase efficiency and save costs.
Apprisia is the cutting-edge solution provider when it comes to SAP and SAP products. Our SAP specialists assist our clients right from the right assessment to deployment till the product’s maintenance.
Our solutions are 360-degree and customer-focused.
So whenever you think of SAP, think Apprisia!
Author: SAP Team, Apprisia
