Business benefits and outcomes with MES implementation

Transcript

Stan Miller: Hello everyone and welcome to ROK Studios. I’m Stan Miller, I’m the PR & Analyst Relations Manager for Rockwell Automation in the EMEA Region, and I’m joined today by Malte Dieckelmann. He is our Regional Vice President for Software Sales in EMEA. Malte, welcome to the studio.

Malte Dieckelmann: Thank you for having me.

Stan Miller: So Malte, we’re here today to talk about the business benefits and outcomes with a successful MES implementation. This is a great topic and I just want to jump right in. What are some of those main business benefits when we talk about an MES implementation? Is it greater flexibility? Is it efficiency? Is it all of the above and more? From your perspective, what does that mean?

Malte Dieckelmann: Let me first start by saying that technology’s advancing. So, MES by itself is, most of the time, joined by other topics as well. Many of our customers have started advancing with MES projects, but also consider  - what about IOT, what about AR, what about this latest technology - and the latest trend is very much about ChatGPT.

So, there is so much happening in the market, so many advancements around technology that it’s really exciting. But what I keep talking to our customers about when they consider an MES implementation, many of them are still at early stages. Many of our customers, and we should not underestimate that, are still dealing with pen and paper.

So, it’s very much about how they can benefit from technology by getting into a more digitalized way of dealing with their own production environment, and there are different angles where we can start. But it is definitely to make sure we can show them there is more in it for them to achieve greater flexibility, agility, and address their challenges.

Stan Miller: Great perspective. Why is having an open-ended approach important when it comes to MES implementation and how is it beneficial?

Malte Dieckelmann: So, ideally, when I talk to customers, we have the situation that we start with a single plant, with a single line, and then it’s important to figure out where’s the start point and the end point, but over time, obviously, these MES implementations will have an impact for the first plant, for multiple plants, and this is where it’s always important to consider over time, what are the changes, what are the learnings, what are the technologies we might need to consider moving forward? What about technical enablements through augmented reality, what about IOT use cases when it comes to measuring operation efficiencies far better?

So, there are different angles and different learnings along the way, so I encourage customers when we talk about that, to have an open-ended approach. Don’t get me wrong, you need to have a start date and an end date for certain implementation, but to be agile and benefit from learnings along the way.

Stan Miller: Makes a lot of sense. When we talk about an MES implementation, how does that help customers diversify their revenue streams?

Malte Dieckelmann: Another interesting perspective. So, by using technology to implement an MES system, customers benefit most of the time from a reduction in scrap, for example, they have more insight about OEE and they gain a different level of flexibility in their own operations. And this frees up a lot of resources, budgets and also people, and so they can start thinking about allocating those resources differently.

And some of our clients even start thinking about how they can transform their own business model to the next level, based on their digital transformation journey. And MES is one cornerstone of that, and that makes it so exciting.

Stan Miller: Malte, when we talk about an MES implementation, where does an ecosystem come into play and how can that affect that entire process? What’s your perspective on that?

Malte Dieckelmann: As I said, during that MES project, there are so many different items to consider. Take, for example, cybersecurity. We have good partnerships with companies like Claroty, for example. When you then about IIOT scenarios, we have a good partnership with PTC. And this is where we can turn different angles into action during such a project - and not to forget how you can scale by using the cloud.

Many of our customers benefit from the cloud already, and it’s the way to go. And we have a great partnership with Microsoft which makes it even more exciting to combine different strengths from different partners, and that’s what we are proud of, what we can offer and communicate with our clients.

Stan Miller: It’s a great point, Malte. I mean, thinking about it, right, one company can deliver some really important technologies and support, but when you bring multiple partners together, best of breed, for example, then all of a sudden you’re getting a more holistic approach, makes complete sense. Malte, thank you so much for joining us in the studio, it’s always a pleasure.

Malte Dieckelmann: Thank you for having me.

Stan Miller: And thank you for watching. If you’d like to learn more about Rockwell Automation information solutions, including MES, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.