What characteristics should a high-quality MES system have?

How does an enterprise choose the most suitable product among numerous MES systems? In other words, what characteristics should a high-quality MES have?

As the trend of economic globalization continues to strengthen and the Sino-US trade war intensifies, as a major manufacturing country, the market competition faced by the manufacturing industry has become increasingly fierce. At the same time, driven by the development of the times, customer needs have become more diversified, the market situation has become more volatile, and production plans have also been affected by various uncertain factors.

Manufacturing production methods are facing changes, coupled with the impact of big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, more and more companies are choosing to introduce MES systems to strengthen intelligent management of production and manufacturing, so as to achieve more scientific customization in the rapidly changing market demand. Arrange production plans to enhance market competitiveness.

However, under the huge market demand, there are hundreds of MES system service developers in my country, and their industries and scales vary. In this case, how can enterprises choose the most suitable product among many MES systems? In other words, what characteristics should a high-quality MES have?

Comprehensive basic functions

MES is a set of production information management system for the execution level of manufacturing enterprise workshops. It has powerful functions and can provide enterprises with manufacturing data management, production planning management, production scheduling management, inventory management, quality management, human resources management, and work center. /Management modules such as equipment management, tool and tooling management, procurement management, cost management, project dashboard management, production process control, underlying data integration analysis, and upper-level data integration and decomposition.

In the face of smart manufacturing MES, system integration capabilities and device interface capabilities are also indispensable in order to achieve internal information interconnection and support intelligent scheduling, visualization and other functions required by smart factories.

1. System integration capabilities

Integration with information systems: As an MES system for intelligent manufacturing, system integration capabilities should be an important consideration, including integration with databases such as SQL and ORCAL, and PDM (docking with BOM and process), ERP (docking with plans and materials), and WMS (Docking logistics, transportation), simulation (docking data) and other software integration, integrating with IOS and Android mobile terminals, etc.

Integration with data formats: technical implementation methods of information integration, such as: XML, CSV, TXT, intermediate tables agreed by both parties, Web services, open API interfaces, etc.

2. Device interface capabilities

At present, technologies such as the Internet, Internet of Things, and big data are continuously applied and popularized in industrial production. The core of their operating principles is to allow manufacturing execution and other systems to virtually connect with various types of physical equipment and extract production test data. These different types of physical equipment include: instruments, sensors, AGVs, robots, industrial control equipment, CNC equipment, placement machines, AOI, etc.

A high-quality MES system can not only collect data from these devices, but also adopts a collection method that is mainly in a common format that meets national standards and international standards. Therefore, when enterprises choose MES, they must pay attention to the standardization and scalability of data collection, not just to achieve temporary purposes.

3.Visualization function

Against the background of the rapid development of China's manufacturing level, some traditional manufacturing technologies can no longer meet the personalized production management needs of today's rapid development of China's manufacturing. For example, the format and content of the original boring reports and billboards are no longer suitable for the requirements and tastes of today's enterprises. The visual expression forms in MES products have become more and more abundant, with more than dozens of types such as point charts, line charts, column charts, pie charts, radar charts, Gantt charts, funnel charts, and three-dimensional charts, and information Comprehensive, beautiful and easy to understand.

At the same time, the visualization function of MES must also meet the changing customer report requirements, flexible user needs to visit the billboard, and more and more mobile terminals to access data, etc. These all require that the technology behind MES visualization must be a convenient construction method: Intelligent configurability, customers can build it arbitrarily, free drag and drop method, what you see is what you get, etc.

Advanced technical architecture

For enterprises, the functions, efficiency, stability and other characteristics of the MES system are what everyone is concerned about. However, enterprises generally do not care about the technical architecture of MES design. But for a high-quality MES system, advanced technical support is essential and the foundation. Based on the relatively advanced technical architecture, system developers can quickly build business functions that meet different user scenarios based on the different practices of various industries and the different needs of customers, and with configurable modules.

Therefore, for those enterprises that have higher requirements for MES systems and more personalized needs, it is necessary to understand the technical architecture of the product and the technical strength of the service provider before choosing MES products.

Strong practical application

For a high-quality MES system, its developers not only need to have superb technical development capabilities in computer program coding and other aspects, but also need to be able to deeply understand and be familiar with the actual manufacturing conditions of various industries, and integrate the functions and practical applications of the MES products involved. The main process flow relationships in the system are one-to-one correspondence, and then constructed according to relevant standards.

This requires that MES development service providers should have the professional level of industry experts, or have industry experts who can provide corresponding guidance in the software development process according to the special needs of production and manufacturing in different industries, so that the MES system developed by technicians can meet both requirements. Industry commonality, but also able to meet the individual needs of enterprises.

Simple and easy to operate

With the rapid development of IT technology, new visual senses and operations are profoundly affecting users' application habits. As a software product based on actual factory applications, since users are based on the workshop level, the MES system needs to be easy to learn, easy to use, and quick to get started, such as using clear interface function icons and using a process engine to promote rapid application operation methods. .

In the actual application process, after each operator enters the system, he can quickly enter his own application interface, find the function menu he needs, and clarify the entire business process related to him, and use a large number of drag and drop, link and other similar methods. Achieve fast and convenient combination, split, zoom in, zoom out, hide and other operations in Win7, Win10 and other operating modes. Of course, it is not limited to this. Ease of operation also includes a beautiful, green, and practical interface, as well as a monitor that is suitable for both mouse and touch screen.