GE Digital: The benefits of MES solutions in manufacturing

What is MES?

A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is an information system used in manufacturing to track, control and monitor the transformation of raw materials to finished goods.

Proper implementation of a MES system increases the team’s efficiency by offering the right information at the right time to the right people on how to optimise current conditions to improve production output.

In July’s Manufacturing Global magazine , we take a look at some of the benefits, according to GE Digital.

• Reduce costs

By aligning resources, energy, and efficiency management via an MES solution manufacturing operations can reduce inventory, identify costly production gaps, lower energy and utility waste, and gain insight into throughput and critical processes.

• Improve quality

MES solutions capture robust quality data and related traceability information, while performing analysis on process-oriented data and product-oriented data, and classifying materials.

• Speed production

By harnessing MES solutions manufacturers can improve on-time delivery performances and respond optimally and with agility to late stage changes, gain up-to-date visibility of all work-in-progress orders, get more successful new product introductions (NPIs), and shorten design-to-delivery cycles.

In July’s edition of Manufacturing Global, Joe Gerstl, Director of Digital Product Management at GE Digital, explained that maximising overall equipment effectiveness, scaling production scheduling and ensuring product quality by leveraging real-time production data are some of the key benefits of lean manufacturing. “While not new, lean manufacturing is a goal for many manufacturers in today’s economic climate,” commented Gerstl. “Modern lean programs utilise digital technologies to close the loop on continuous improvement and maintain changes through digitised standard work or SOPs. Lean programs of the past would see significant gains, but then the gains would slowly erode. Smart MES helps manufacturers maintain the momentum and drive consistency.”

Interested in reading more? Check out the July issue of Manufacturing Global!