What’s in a name? Exploring how MES is defined differently throughout the manufacturing industry

I had just started doing projects in the renewable energy industry and was chatting with my main technical stakeholder over lunch. I’m early in my career, probably around 24 years old, and learning a lot from this seasoned subject matter expert who’s 6-months away from retirement. He’s going on about proper MMI design, and I can follow along because it sounds a lot like SCADA design, but MMI is a totally new term for me. I can’t hide my ignorance forever, so I have to ask: “What is an MMI?”

“Oh! Sorry. I mean HMI [Human-Machine Interface]. We used to call them Man-Machine Interfaces back in the day. You know… old habits.”

Factories are unique and complex environments, and something as simple as a name can get complicated quickly! How do we define the boundaries, the properties, and the designations of these systems? How will those definitions scale if they need to go beyond a plant? How do those definitions change over time as technology, our people, our culture, and our processes change? 

Defining and naming these systems is crucial for clear communication with our colleagues, especially when we need to explain them to stakeholders unfamiliar with our plant environment.

MES (Manufacturing Execution System) is one term that ends up with a lot of different associations as it has been adapted to so many manufacturing environments. There are academic definitions that use industry standards like ISA-95 to define what MES and other “Level 3” systems can do. Many manufacturers end up with their own definition of MES based on what’s most important in their industry; while their individual plants may come up with their own definitions based on their technology implementation and factory culture.

As Kanoa is an MES software company, this is an important topic to us! We thought it would be fun to kick off our blog with a series exploring the term MES, how it’s used, and the pros and cons of these different perspectives. We’ll start by explaining MES in the context of the ISA-95 standard, then discuss how MES came to mean different things in different manufacturing verticals, explore how local technology implementations can shape how people consider MES, and then tie it all together and discuss how this understanding can help us deliver more successful MES solutions.