What factors will affect the implementation of the MES system? Or why is the delivery rate of enterprises implementing MES system low?
I think the key point is: in the current environment where the degree of MES productization is generally not high, the understanding of project and management software itself is too simple, and the lack of experienced industry talents is the main reason why most of the current MES systems affect the delivery.
Looking back on the past, the domestic MES industry basically has the following situations:
1. The demand for intelligent manufacturing construction is urgent, and the demand for enterprise MES system is strong;
2. The investment amount of manufacturing enterprises in MES has increased, and there is a trend of shifting to the high investment amount range;
3. The degree of productization of the MES system is still low, and manufacturing companies mostly implement the MES system through independent research and development or cooperative development;
4. The success rate of MES project implementation is not high, and only half of the projects achieve the expected effect.
The reason for these situations is that "smart manufacturing" has only become popular in recent years. Like the original Internet boom, this boom has attracted a large number of practitioners who have transferred from other fields. Unlike the mature ERP market, the MES field is still in a blue ocean with no oligarchs, just like in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, when the princes from all over the world formed their own side. The project manager who is working on the MES project for your company may have switched to an ERP project before, the product manager may have switched to an e-commerce system before, and the development is likely to switch from a small program. For the masters with rich experience in the IT industry, although they can't quickly figure out the doorway, they are still very good at copying the homework of their predecessors.
Based on this, the following article will discuss the current state of the MES (Manufacturing Execution System) field and compare it with the mature ERP field. Analyze from the four dimensions of management, design, implementation and talent. These points of view are a practitioner's initial understanding of the MES industry. Pointing out and discussing anything that is incorrect or inaccurate is welcome.
Factors affecting the implementation of MES systems in enterprises include:
1. Underestimating the proportion of "management" in the entire project
Manufacturing companies face management issues, especially those related to production. Management requires effective information transfer and communication, including work orders, processing orders, reports, meetings, etc. Information systems can improve management efficiency and reduce communication costs. However, in enterprises with low management levels, it is difficult to improve management problems even with the use of management systems. The management system is only a supplementary tool, and someone needs to be able to use it effectively.
The MES system is the core of the production management system, involving personnel, equipment, materials, warehouses, logistics, processes, plans, and quality. Information management needs to rebuild the entire production management process and system. This requires management to carefully analyze the pros and cons of each system design, rather than being arbitrarily determined by external companies.
Management software digitizes management logic, but a deviation in one field or logic can have a huge impact on production. When allocating project resources, you can learn from the software giant SAP or the low-code consulting model of China Zhixin. Management consulting ability is the key. Platforms such as SAP and Zhixin have established their own talent echelons and certification systems. When solving management problems, user interviews, business refactoring, requirements summary and system design can be conducted to allow business users to participate and clarify project requirements and goals.
2. Underestimating the "design" complexity of the entire system
The standard productization of MES system is difficult, mainly because of the complexity of the management system itself. The reason why German industrial software is powerful is that they incorporate various management business forms into one management system and require them to be integrated without conflict. This requires starting from the most basic theoretical research, splitting all businesses into the smallest particles and classifying them. This part of the work is beyond the scope of the daily programmer's functions and needs to be undertaken by business experts and system designers.
The MES system carries the understanding of production management and business logic of manufacturing enterprises, and different production products, models and processes will lead to different management requirements. This complicates the productization of an MES system, requiring in-depth manufacturing process knowledge and management business logic.
Foreign MES products are more like a development platform, which needs to be designed and managed by a localized implementation team. In contrast, for management software, the threshold of development ability is not high, but to truly master the system requires an in-depth understanding of its management ideas and business logic. To design MES products in the manufacturing industry well, you need to become half a business expert in the current industry and have a deep understanding of the meaning behind each data.
The design complexity of the MES system is comparable to or even higher than that of the ERP system, involving process management, task management, production scheduling, quality management, equipment management, warehouse management, material distribution, supply chain, etc. To do a good job in MES system design, it takes several years of time and energy to learn manufacturing and management knowledge, and to optimize and improve. This is a long process that requires constant trial, trial and error, reflection and summarization, and together with customers to find the optimal solution.
3. Underestimating the difficulty of "implementing" the entire system
The implementation of MES system is difficult, mainly because of management and equipment interconnection. The difficulty in management is that it covers a wide range and involves a large number of on-site production personnel. In terms of equipment interconnection, it is necessary to solve the data collection problem of different brands and models of equipment.
For the implementation difficulties in management, for example, in a manufacturing enterprise with a scale of 200 people, most of the personnel are related to on-site production, and only a small part are office management personnel. Previously, implementing an ERP system took a long time and only covered part of the office staff. For the MES system, it needs to cover all production-related personnel in the factory, and the number of people is wider than that of the ERP system, so the implementation is more difficult.
In terms of device interconnection, the types and brands of devices used by enterprises are diverse, and devices of different eras may even work at the same time. This leads to many implementation issues in terms of device data collection and networking. Some equipment needs to be modified to collect data, while the data of some equipment is treated confidentially, and it is necessary to purchase a special interface to obtain accurate signals. These circumstances increase the workload and difficulty of implementation.
For these two implementation problems, the following solutions can be adopted. In terms of management, the difficulty of implementation is reduced through management consulting and system design. Data initialization and other work can be distributed to key users and employees in the management consulting stage to cultivate their ability to deal with problems. In the system design stage, let customers participate in the whole process, let them understand the software design and put forward requirements, and avoid problems caused by later modifications. This increases productivity, reduces implementation effort, and increases customer satisfaction.
In terms of device interconnection, professional matters can be handed over to professional people. For some data acquisition problems of unpopular equipment, professional companies can be introduced to solve them, and the core of the MES system is placed in the management part. In this way, the long-term process of technical breakthrough can be avoided, and the project cycle and implementation cost can be controlled. Finally, the connection of the underlying devices is realized through unified data aggregation. These aspects are exactly what enterprise-level low-code platforms are good at.
The above are the solutions to the difficulty of MES system implementation, for reference.
4. The "talent" echelon of the industry has not yet reached a large scale
At present, the degree of productization in the field of MES is relatively low, mainly based on customized development. Some people mistakenly believe that development is omnipotent, as long as the requirements are clearly developed, the system software can be quickly completed. This mode may be effective in simple requirements, but it is easy to encounter bottlenecks in complex business scenarios. All-rounders are uncommon because everyone has limited energy and expertise.
When building a customized management system such as MES, business experts are the core role, and they need to understand management and system design to serve as the link between the demander and the developer. They understand the high-level goals and management needs, structure the traditional management business, and assist enterprises in the transformation of information management processes and systems. They work with the management team to analyze and refine the change goals layer by layer, and customize the system design for the usage scenarios of different roles. It is best to have one person responsible for the entire project to avoid coordination problems and skewed results.
At present, the talent echelon of the MES industry has not been fully cultivated, and companies and practitioners who are new to the industry are facing challenges. Although it is impossible to solve the shortage of talents in the industry, efforts can be made to improve the level and ability of the team, train more business experts, strengthen their management consulting and system design capabilities, and better serve customized MES projects.
This is a simplified description of the degree of productization, development models, and roles of business experts in the current MES field.
Conclusion:
In general, the main factors affecting the implementation of MES systems in manufacturing enterprises in recent years are as follows:
· The industry is immature, and many companies rush into the field without experience, fooling customers with standard definitions, and failing to meet real needs.
· Sales and pre-sales personnel only care about signing projects, but are not responsible for implementation, resulting in difficulty in project delivery.
· MES productization and standardization are difficult and require industry-by-industry breakthroughs, lacking good standards and products.
· The lack of experienced industry talents in the project led to the failure of the project.
· Some companies lack professionalism and focus, and the market needs truly professional and valuable companies and practitioners.
The improvement of the MES industry is a long-term process that requires joint efforts to retain professional and valuable people, and the market will naturally eliminate unqualified companies and practitioners.
So come on~