Manufacturing execution (MES)
The record of what actually happened on the line, minute by minute.
01 What it holds
The data inside it
Production confirmations, downtime events, speed loss, quality results and batch genealogy — the only place the difference between planned and actual production exists.
Work order, Operation, Asset / Work centre, Downtime event, Reason code, Batch / Lot, Quality result, Material consumption
02 Getting the data out
Extraction, and the keys that decide whether it joins
Usually a plant historian or database per site, extracted per site rather than centrally. Site-by-site schema variation is the norm even under one vendor.
Work order links to ERP but often with a site prefix or a local numbering scheme. Asset identifiers rarely match the ERP equipment master or the CMMS.
03 What goes wrong
The failures that look like success
Each of these produces a number that is plausible, reconciles to something, and is wrong. They are worth reading before the first extract, not after the first dispute.
Reason codes differ per plant
Downtime taxonomy is configured locally, so group-level loss analysis needs a mapping layer that somebody has to own.
Time is local and shifts cross midnight
Shift definitions, daylight saving and site time zones make naive time-based aggregation wrong in a way that is very hard to spot.
Confirmed quantity is not produced quantity
ERP confirmation and MES output are recorded at different moments and often at different granularity. The reconciliation rule has to be defined, not discovered.
High volume, low value per row
Second-level data is enormous. Aggregating too early loses the ability to explain a loss; aggregating too late costs a fortune to store.
04 Joins that matter
What this system is worth joining to
| Join to | What it lets you answer |
|---|---|
| ERP | to value output and losses at standard cost |
| CMMS | to connect downtime to maintenance history and spares |
| QMS | to trace a complaint back to the batch and shift that made it |
05 Metrics it feeds
The numbers that come out of it
06 Questions
Frequently asked
Why do MES and ERP never agree?
They are answering different questions at different times. MES records physical events as they happen; ERP records financial confirmations when they are posted. Both are right, and the reconciliation has to be a governed rule.
What is the first join worth making?
MES output and scrap to ERP standard cost. It turns a percentage into a margin line and is usually the fastest way to make a factory conversation financial.
Connect this system without replacing it
SCIKIQ reads it in place, resolves the entities inside it and governs what the fields mean.