AUTOMATION TODAY ISSUE 70 | Technology Watch

Get Smart and Migrate your MES to the Cloud

With cloud-based MES, manufacturers can take control of their shop floor with full visibility and connectivity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of smart manufacturing – particularly the migration to the cloud – as manufacturers increasingly realize the benefits of doing so.

Poorly connected people and systems, lack of inventory and process visibility, and slow or inaccurate reporting are some of the pre-existing challenges manufacturers have been facing that have since intensified.

“From fulfilling orders digitally and physically to remote working by employees, businesses have found they need cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) software to run their businesses effectively,” noted IDC in its research.

The need for increased efficiencies, real-time updates, and the ability to perform functions while working remotely have magnified the value of cloud-based technologies, including for manufacturing execution systems (MES).

The Value of MES

The best MES systems deliver a real-time production ecosystem that guides, initiates and reports plant floor activities as they occur for optimized and responsive plant operations and processes. Although many MES vendors integrate different components together, a solution that is designed as a unified production environment will result in a single version of plant data and intelligence – leading to higher accuracy, accessibility, and control.

Real-time visibility, including inventory movement and location during work-in-progress, worker and equipment activities, production counts and quality measurements, provide operators and managers the infrastructure they need for quicker access to actionable information to make more timely decisions. Better decisions made with confidence in the data result in improved quality, efficient operations, and reliable schedule adherence.

For every action or transaction in production, data is captured in the MES. Every unit of inventory is tracked for precise genealogy and traceability from the time it enters the MES domain until it is transferred to the parent distribution system.

Since inventory and production reporting are part of the unified MES ecosystem, traceability firmly ties inventory batches, lots or serial numbers to equipment, day/ time, measurements, and more for effective trackability to reduce the risk and exposure of a recall. With this data, manufacturers can quickly and definitively identify relationships, content and source information to trace the effect of any potential quality issue or improvement opportunity.

The detailed asset performance data can be used for predictive and preventive maintenance planning and early detection of potential need for equipment adjustments or repairs. Similarly, MES data can feed tooling management applications for dispatching and maintenance of tooling and fixtures. Because all activities are digitized, accurate costing results can be gleaned from the detailed data and communicated up to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

An effective MES infrastructure supports open communication and data exchange in both directions with the corporate ERP system.

MES in the Cloud Offers Scale and Reliability

Whether MES is an integral part of the corporate backbone or a separate, best-in-class addition, cloud deployment makes sense for several reasons. Uptime for plant operations is critical and if the enterprise system is down for planned or unplanned maintenance, the plant cannot function.

Manufacturers can look to Plex Systems, a Rockwell Automation company that provides a Smart Manufacturing Platform as a solution. The software-as-a-service, cloud-native smart manufacturing platform offers the flexibility to connect, automate, track, and analyze – the four key capabilities required of manufacturers and Industry 4.0. It includes options for MES, ERP, supply chain planning and management, quality, Industrial IoT (IIoT) and analytics.

With cloud deployment – especially true with SaaS – all maintenance and support are handled by an organization whose core competence is to keep the system up and running. Moreover, some cloud solutions continuously deploy enhancements and fixes so there is no need to take down the system for upgrades. If a service interruption occurs, there are always live back-up (hot site) facilities available.

In addition, as economies and markets rise and fall, IT resources to support plant expansion and contraction are scalable instantly without significant IT investment or involvement.

With effective integration between the relevant data streams, plants can configure and reconfigure their MES system to suit their needs without impact on the parent ERP system. Configuration and testing are done “offline” and when the system is ready to be deployed, it happens with a flick of a switch. Moreover, in support of the goal of MES standardization, subsequent plants can be brought online using the same configurations in a fraction of the time and create a standard configuration across the enterprise to make management more effective.

Since the industrial automation network is connected to physical hardware and must support lots of data at potentially high speeds, it has traditionally been supported by an on-premise server. Data is communicated to the MES as required and with cloud MES, synchronizes using that edge server.

MES offers tight control of the various aspects of production including recording of uptime, production, and scrap. With a cloud deployment, remote supervisors can easily access all data regarding production, inventory and quality via mobile devices and the Internet. This enables managers to quickly engage in urgent issues whether they are on the other side of the plant or on the other side of the planet.

Quality managers can monitor, react and make immediate decisions to isolate and contain potential quality risks before they “escape” and result in chargebacks or worse – a recall. If there is a quality issue result, traceability to potential failure points can swiftly uncover the culprit – even if caused by an upstream supplier – and enable quick resolution and reporting. Most importantly, this information is available in real time from anywhere through a simple Internet connection.

Moving to the Cloud

A growing number of manufacturers are relying on cloud-based MES solutions to help manage their business because of this flexibility and the ability to be much more responsive to plant floor activities.

Cloud deployment and SaaS proven to be effective strategies for ERP. A rapidly growing number of enterprises opting for the cloud as the preferred platform for their enterprise system. These same benefits are available for cloud-based MES.

Cloud/SaaS allows the manufacturer to focus on high-value activities like designing, manufacturing and distributing product by off-loading the IT burden while eliminating any worries about support, security and keeping the systems up-to-date and productive.

As companies grow and expand, they can do so more easily without the traditional expansion of IT footprint, budget, and staff and can focus their resources on their core competency – production. Moreover, valuable technical professionals – difficult to find in today’s tight labor market – can be redirected to focus on more strategic pursuits such as spending more time with data and process analysis.

It is the perfect complement to the growth of IIoT, helping to gather, connect and analyze virtually any data from production operations to drive greater operational efficiency.

Subscribe to Rockwell Automation and receive the latest news, thought leadership and information directly to your inbox.