The engineering and manufacturing industries have undergone major changes ever since the early industrial revolutions. Today, these changes are largely about digitalisation, with higher demands for traceability, customised solutions, a wider range of products and more frequent changes in specifications. Increasing complexity in the supply chain, materials management and manufacturing execution makes a manual approach very vulnerable.
We are also seeing a more mobile labour market plus a generational shift, with experienced staff retiring, which is also affecting the industry. Digitisation of people-dependent knowledge and paper-based processes is becoming increasingly crucial to ensure effective training of new employees.
Manufacturing companies that have digitised processes throughout the supply chain are better equipped to respond quickly to changing market conditions and see improved productivity, profitability and quality as a result. Many companies are well on their way to success, while others are in the early stages, with terms such as MES, MOM and Industry 4.0 starting to circulate.
What exactly is MES/MOM?
MES (Manufacturing Execution System) digitalize operator/assembler workflows, provides execution support and work instructions, and provides traceability of who did what, with what material and to what end product.
MOM (Manufacturing Operations Management) is a broader concept where different modules or systems together provide digital support and transparency through the production processes. A MOM platform links all production processes to enable, for example, quality management, advanced production planning, MES and product development management.
How can system support such as MES/MOM support production?
Many companies today use Excel for their production planning and materials management. They rely on manual updates and changes. What is often forgotten or taken for granted is that all parts of a production are important.
By implementing MES/MOM, you can easily gain visibility into your entire operation by visualising the production flow and identifying bottlenecks. Production becomes flexible as it can accelerate and decelerate in a planned way. You can also visualise the relevant key production indicators in real time, for example for management or customers.
You increase your productivity, have much faster training of production staff, ensure high quality and have available data to act on, and improve operations from the outside.
A MES/MOM platform has a major impact on the success of your future and modern production and makes your production well equipped for change.
Successful implementation of MES/MOM
Many companies are interested in digitalize and moving forward but don't really know where to start. A common mistake is that a digitalization project is carried out as several smaller initiatives, which can lead to the different initiatives not always supporting each other, making it difficult to create a flow and a whole.
To get started, you should start by analysing your business, what is working well enough, and where is the process less effective, identify where you can most benefit from making a change, create a target picture and then prioritise.
Involve employees early on to get the best solution for Location and the future users on board. Create a core team that can drive the issues over time. It is important to keep in mind that the path to modernizing your business is not just about a system support, but is a long-term business change with constant small improvements. A successful introduction of MES/MOM is very much about a company having the courage to see the whole picture.
Learn from other industries and/or bring in an external actor in the implementation project. It's easy to become insular and sometimes it's easier to see things from the outside. Another industry may have already solved the same problem. All industries have their strengths and weaknesses and using a fresh perspective you can combine and put together your new "model factory".
In summary: see the opportunities, involve the business, collect the data and visualise.
