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A MES, or manufacturing execution system, is a central system for managing all manufacturing information such as resource allocation, manufacturing planning, supply chain information and quality inspection numbers. Similarly, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which pulls together and stores business operating information about human resources, accounting, customer relationship management and other financials, was operated independently. Both systems have always been critical to the manufacturing organization, but until recently, had never been linked.
Recently, however, many manufacturers are realizing that by marrying these two systems, they can create an integrated system stretching from headquarters across multiple factories, warehouses, engineering centers and even sales offices. This allows them to more easily view all company operations and refine them as quickly as necessary. A more holistic view of purchasing, credit, accounting, supply chain management and manufacturing planning gives them greater agility and better data to help with decision making and forecasting.
Many manufacturers are faced with the same problem, relating the data from their manufacturing side and their business side. They simply have no effective way to communicate. The problem becomes how to automatically convert the data from the MES system to the ERP system. This lack of system communication makes it hard to synchronize business and manufacturing information for an overall view of company operations. The whole integration goal was is make as much data as possible available to get an overall look at how a company is functioning. Return on an ERP investment can be increased by 50 percent by integrating it with accurate, real-time, plant information.
As vendors have come out with offerings that ease integration, the interest in joining MES and ERP us is increasing. For the past four of five years now, there has been a significant increase in the number of people looking to integrate these business systems.
The case for integration is strengthened in part because of new demands for faster response times in manufacturing. Today's vendors are offering easy-to-implement integration options. In short, MES integrated with ERP systems provide a way to visualize and utilize the manufacturing and business data to make process improvements and the right organizational decisions.