Models for MES In an Enterprise Architecture

Applying Industry Models in a Discrete Manufacturing Environment

D. Fraser

May 12, 2011

MES Model within an Enterprise Architecture 2011-05-12

Executive Overview
This document describes the modeling techniques applied for the integration of a Manufacturing Execution System
(MES) into enterprise architecture. The MES complements the enterprise resource planning system by providing
essential production information in a fully integrated environment that reduces the dependence on manual data
entry.

The implementation of a MES introduces actionable, real-time information into the paper-based shop floor
environment and creates a “paperless shop floor”. This enables critical information to flow throughout the
organization—including the once-forgotten areas of manufacturing. Collecting data from the shop floor and
transacting in real time to other enterprise systems thereby replacing unnecessary and error-prone manual data entry
systems. Having information about events as they occur allows planning departments to identify and prevent
potential problems or bottlenecks.

MES subsumes fragmented shop floor applications deployed within manufacturing unifying the functions performed
by these legacy systems. Avoiding and eliminating isolated knowledge pools by leveraging the intellectual property
in current shop floor systems by mapping the data contents to the MES through electronic means. MES fulfills its
enterprise mission through functional integration to other enterprise systems providing bidirectional synchronization
of master data as well as the real time exchange of operational data.

Implementing MES by leveraging industry standards will reduce the cost to integrate MES to other enterprise
applications. The integrated enterprise using XML, web services technology, and an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB),
to interconnecting applications reduces the integration cost to less than half of the current typical point to point
costs, and delivers the solution in a fraction of the time.

Ultimately, an MES implementation to the enterprise keeps costs in check, and production and shipments on
schedule.

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Table of Contents

1 The Manufacturing Domain.................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Discrete Manufacturing Processes ................................................................................... 5
1.2 Characterizing the Manufacturing Processes ................................................................... 5
2 Enterprise Domain (Architecture)........................................................................................... 6
2.1 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) ............................................................................... 6
2.2 Product Life Cycle Management (PLM).......................................................................... 7
2.3 Manufacturing Execution System (MES) ........................................................................ 7
2.4 Integrating Enterprise Systems......................................................................................... 7
3 Manufacturing Operations (Defining MES project) ............................................................... 8
3.1 Industry Standards – ANSI/ISA S95................................................................................ 8
3.2 Model for MES................................................................................................................. 8
4 Shop Floor Operational View ............................................................................................... 10
4.1 Shop Floor “As Is” Operational Activity Model............................................................ 11
4.2 Shop Floor “To Be” Operational Activity Model .......................................................... 13
4.3 Shop Floor Systems – Organizational View .................................................................. 16
5 Shop Floor Data Exchange ................................................................................................... 10
5.1 Product data.................................................................................................................... 17
5.2 Plant Resources .............................................................................................................. 17
5.3 Operational Data Exchange............................................................................................ 18
5.4 Systems Interface Model................................................................................................ 19
6 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 19

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Table of Figures

Figure 1-1 Manufacture .................................................................................................................. 1

Figure 1-2 Repair and Maintenance................................................................................................ 6
Figure 3-1 Manufacturing Operations Functions............................................................................ 1
Figure 3-2 S95 Activity Model Example........................................................................................ 1
Figure 4-1 High Level Operational Concept .................................................................................. 1
Figure 4-2 MES Shop Floor.......................................................................................................... 11
Figure 4-3 Typical Shop Floor Systems ...................................................................................... 12
Figure 4-4 Process Execution Detail As Is ................................................................................... 13
Figure 4-5 To Be Shop Floor Systems.......................................................................................... 14
Figure 4-6 Process Execution Detail To Be.................................................................................. 14
Figure 4-7 Data Collection and Reporting.................................................................................... 15
Figure 4-8 Organization View ...................................................................................................... 16
Figure 5-1 Product Data.................................................................................................................. 1
Figure 5-2 Shop Floor Work Center ............................................................................................... 1
Figure 5-3 Work Center Production Execution Activities............................................................ 18
Figure 5-4 Required Data Flows..................................................................................................... 1

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1 The Manufacturing Domain

Organizations have been working for many years to bring into use commercial enterprise IT systems to standardize
work processes and eliminate legacy, customized, and isolated systems to the greatest extent possible.

This goal, to standardize upper level business processes and communications, as well as streamline the processes
utilized within the enterprise. Not intended to mandate all shop floor operations to operate in the same manner, in
fact the diversity of types of manufacturing operations, products, equipment, labor, local codes, make it imperative
that individual organizations have the freedom to organize their shop floor work operations in a manner consistent
with past proven processes and policies.

What does need to be consistent throughout the manufacturing operations?

• The type of data which is transferred between the enterprise level systems and the individual
manufacturing sites
• How this data is communicated across manufacturing operations
• Quality of product regardless of which facility in the enterprise produced or repaired the product.

1.1 Discrete Manufacturing Processes

The Manufacturing domain includes repair, maintenance and production enterprise that performs a very diverse
number of manufacturing operations

Fabrication transforms raw materials into semi finished and final products through a series of manufacturing steps.
Within the enterprise, locations act as original equipment manufacturers producing new product from raw material
through foundry operations, forging, precision machining and welding, plating, finishing, painting, packaging, etc.

The enterprise also consists of Repair & Maintenance Operations where previously manufactured products are fully
disassembled, reconditioned and reassembled with a combination of original components, reconditioned components
and new parts.

Repair & Maintenance operations also reclaim (overhaul and return to service) many of the components and spare
parts, provide refurbished spare parts into inventory for future maintenance. Many have the ability to produce hard
to find parts needed to complete the repair and maintenance. The production of these parts may itself be equivalent
to a commercial scale facility.

1.2 Characterizing the Manufacturing Processes

Process execution is the physical production of goods or the repair and maintenance of equipment. The physical
activities take place on the shop floor where manufacturing technicians receive and consume materials to produce
the end items. The nature of these activities at is very complex
and varied.

The build work flow consumes raw materials, combined with

sub assemblies to produce new end items. These processes
utilize a bill of material (BOM) during production. The
processes carried out at these facilities include Make to Order
(MTO) or Engineer to Order (ETO).

The Repair and Maintenance process commonly referred to as Figure 1-1 Manufacture
(MRO) workflow is more complex. The end item is both the

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object of the order and a material component on the bill of materials (BOM). The process requires serialized
tracking, often returning subcomponents to the original assembly).

Figure 1-2 Repair and Maintenance

2 Enterprise Domain (Architecture)

The Enterprise relies on a variety of internal organizations with far reaching tasks to achieve their goals. These
organizations include central engineering, schedule and planning, and manufacturing. These organizations feed
information to each other to create, maintain, or repair products across the enterprise.
Each has specific roles; but none of these groups can work efficiently without data
Planners &
from the others. Typically in small companies, engineering / planning & scheduling / Schedulers
manufacturing are within the same building or at a minimum within the same site,
Central
making communication between the groups easy to facilitate; however as the enterprise Engineering
gets larger, with multiple sites, in multiple states, in multiple time zones, the amount of
Manufacturing
information to be managed grows and the ability to distribute and maintain information
becomes increasingly difficult.

To control the information flow in commercial industries, engineering / planning & scheduling / manufacturing
groups work with various vendors to deploy specialized software solutions for their specific functions within the
enterprise; initially developed to help standardize data and communication within a particular group or organization.
As these software solutions evolve standardized communication protocols are adopted greatly increasing efficiencies
in transferring data between different enterprise groups.

Of the many enterprise level software solutions, this whitepaper focuses on the three functions that have a direct
impact to the shop floor. The following sections contain a general description of these software categories.

2.1 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

An ERP system typically integrates enterprise level information – i.e. financial, accounting, human resources,
supply chain management, and customer information. The goal of ERP software is to mirror the business processes
of the enterprise and help manage key parts of the business at an enterprise level.

Shop Floor activities supported by a typical ERP include:

• Order Tracking • Supplier Interactions

• Maintaining Inventories • Parts Purchasing
• Product Planning • Customer Base

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2.2 Product Life Cycle Management (PLM)

Both resource planning and manufacture within the manufacturing domain depends upon current product
configuration information maintained by the engineering centers. In large enterprises, PLM is a software solution
utilized primarily by the organizations to manage the entire product life cycle.

The content of PLM data includes eBOM (Engineering Bill of Material), technical data, as well as models from the
OEM. From a factory floor perspective, PLM is an engineering system which maintains OEM data, Drawings,
Models, Technical Data, etc. There are many other features offered by PLM systems but for purposes of this paper,
it is the PLMs’ ability to manage engineering data.

2.3 Manufacturing Execution System (MES)

MES is the factory floor execution system. It is the MES layer in which
the operators directly interact to step through the execution of the work
flow to produce or repair product. The list of work to be performed,
specific instructions to execute the work, data points to be collected,
quality inspections of the work, sign off’s indicating the work is
complete, are all performed within the MES layer.

Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) provide the workflow,

visibility and event notification required to ensure that manufacturing is
meeting enterprise information demands. Simultaneously MES reduces
non value-add activities, increases data accuracy and provides the ERP
system with the real-time data needed to maximize enterprise
processing, planning and scheduling activities.

A MES system acts as a messenger between the factory floor, corporate engineering (PLM), and corporate planners /
schedulers (ERP). When the operator requires data from the ERP or PLM: initiates the request within MES; the
MES system then connects to the appropriate system to retrieve and display the information. In the ideal world, the
fact that three different enterprise level systems exists is transparent to the shop floor.

2.4 Integrating Enterprise Systems

With this basic understanding of the enterprise systems, the next step is to determine the level
of integration required with each system. In summary of above:

• ERP plans, schedules, and issues work to the factory floor.

• PLM provides the product standards and engineering data for development of the
factory floor work processes.
• MES defines the factory floor work processes and executes the work.

Every enterprise uses these three systems, differing the emphasis placed on each system based on product mix; high
volume, low variation place emphasis on ERP and MES, while small volume high variation emphasis on PLM over
ERP and MES. The goal of every enterprise is to determine their organizational model and have the software
support this model.

Whereas, it is possible to find ERP software which can perform PLM and MES functions, PLM software which
does ERP and MES, and MES software which can do ERP and PLM; a single software package has yet to be

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developed which can do all three functions well. An enterprise with the diverse products and types of
manufacturing, the enterprise needs to utilize the individual strengths of the three independent systems and not try to
make one or two systems cover the third.

3 Manufacturing Operations (Defining MES project)

Manufacturing operations encompass numerous plant level activities involving equipment (definition, usage,
schedule, and maintenance), materials (identification, properties, location, and status), personnel (qualifications,
availability, and schedule) and the interaction between these and the numerous systems that contains pieces of
information. Defining the boundary of the MES system, and the interactions with user and other systems requires a
reference framework. Bringing organization to this mix of functions, and to maximize the use of commercial MES
software products, industry standards facilitate the MES design philosophy.

3.1 Industry Standards – ANSI/ISA S95

There are numerous data models available for guidance on developing ‘computer aided manufacturing’ to more
recent supply chain optimization plans. The primary reference used in developing this architecture is the five part
standard by the International Society of Automation (ISA), entitled ISA S95 Enterprise – Control System
Integration. This document uses the models and terminology defined within this standard. The ISA S95 standard
defines a hierarchical systems model, which contains multiple levels of systems used within an enterprise. Level 4,
Business Planning and Logistics, is the top level. Level 3, Manufacturing Operations and Control is the domain of
commercial MES products.

As currently envisioned, ANSI/ISA-95 consists of the following parts under the general title Enterprise-Control
System Integration:
- Part 1: Models and terminology
- Part 2: Objects and attributes for Enterprise-Control System Integration
- Part 3: Models of manufacturing operations management
- Part 4: Object models and attributes of manufacturing operations management
- Part 5: Business to manufacturing transactions

The defined manufacturing domain includes only production, quality and inventory functions; the maintenance
function is wholly contained within a dedicated manufacturing maintenance software package, which remains an
isolated operation within the model. The following are the components of part 3 of the S95 model identifying MES
functions:

• Production Operations Management - includes the activities of production control and the subset of the
production scheduling, product inventory control, and material & energy control activities as operating
Level 3 functions.
• Quality Operations Management - includes the activities of quality assurance that operate as Level 3
functions.
• Inventory Operations Management - includes the activities of management of inventory and material that
operate as Level 3 functions.

For a more detailed explanation of the above models or the ISA S95 standards refer to ANSI/ISA–95.00.03–2005 -
Enterprise-Control System Integration Part 3: Activity Models of Manufacturing Approved 6 June 2005

3.2 Model for MES

A standards driven model achieves the goal of having MES fills the shop floor need utilizing readily available
commercial off the shelf (COTS) product configured to the manufacturing domain specific needs. Ensuring the
MES project provides the shop floor management with current production visibility and is fully integrated with other
enterprise systems.

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Existing within the manufacturing domain are numerous

Order
Processing
(1.0)
Automated Information Systems (AIS) developed and
licensed at both the enterprise and individual installation
Production
Scheduling
(2.0)
level to provide applications in areas such as planning,
B Product Cost
Accounting
(8.0)
Product
Shipping execution, management and analysis support
Admin
(9.0) production. These applications maintain the financial,
asset management legal and regulatory information
Material &
Product Product
requirements pertinent to production. The initial usage
Energy Inventory
Control
(4.0)
Control
(3.0) Control
(7.0)
of the ISA S95 model determines the current
implementation of each manufacturing operation;
making determination regarding the logical location of
Procurement
(5.0)
Quality
Assurance
the function along the Manufacturing Operation
Maintenance
(6.0)
Functions model. The activity identifies functions,
Management
(10.0) which are solely level 4 or level 3 implementations
Marketing along with functions that are currently satisfied without
& Sales
R&D and
Engineering
(12.0) additional work.
(13.0)

With established boundaries agreed conduct shop floor

Figure 3-1 Manufacturing Operations Functions
requirements gathering sessions across the
manufacturing domain to establish a baseline MES
functional requirements matrix. The primary source for the structure and organization of these requirements in
logical grouping follows established guidelines such as ANSI/ISA–95.00.03–2005 - Enterprise-Control System
Integration Part 3: Activity Models of Manufacturing for defining the functional boundaries. Within each area,
specific details emerge regarding current conditions and the desired operating conditions. Mapped against the
standard guidelines an overall map emerges that determines the boundary of MES within each functional area. A
production example is highlighted indicating deviations from the normalized functional boundary.

This model provides the framework for establishing the project boundary, the MES implementation boundary and
the benchmark for evaluation of commercial software vendor products. The outcome is user driven functional
requirements, conformed by industry guidelines that are specific and unambiguous.

Production
Manufacturing Operations Model

Activity Model

Detailed
production
scheduling

Production Production
MES
resource tracking
Functions A management

Production
B Dispatching
Anaysis

Product Production
definition data
management collection
With the overall functional needs identified the project proceeds:
Production
execution

• Complete a Business Case Analysis

• Prepare MES product requirements.
• Complete a market survey to establish the availability of
suitable MES products. Figure 3-2 S95 Activity Model Example
• Develop an Acquisition strategy

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4 Shop Floor Operational View

Throughout the manufacturing domain is a desire for enterprise software that will increase productivity through
control and integration of engineering, management and the shop floor.

The enterprise model (right) shows the interaction between the

engineering function that has responsibility for Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM), the enterprise management function
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and the shop floor operations
management function Manufacturing Execution (MES).
MES
Each system maintains a significant database of role specific data,
and procedures, with overlaps and intersections with the data in
other systems. Providing for coordination and sharing of this
overlap data, while preserving master data ownership is a critical
PLM ERP
component when integrating these systems.

By introducing, MES, actionable, real-time information into the

traditionally paper-based shop floor environment creates the Figure 4-1 High Level Operational Concept
“paperless shop floor”. A “paperless shop floor” enables critical
information to flow throughout the organization—including the
forgotten areas of manufacturing.

Having information about events as they occur allows planners to identify and prevent potential problems or
bottlenecks. Event management provides real-time notification of events and exceptions— often before, they
occur—allowing proactive steps to manage the events. Ultimately, MES contributes to the enterprise’s ability to
keep costs in check, production and shipments on schedule.

A seamless collection of data from the shop floor activities stored in a relational database enables compiling the
product genealogy and produces manufacturing history report. The captured data allows for historic inquires and
work order to work order comparisons that is invaluable for quality investigations and process improvements.

Leveraging XML technology and industry standards like OAGIS or ISA-S95 in a Service Oriented Architecture
(SOA) further reduces the cost to integrate MES to other applications. The SOA approach to application integration
reduces the cost to less than half of the current typical point to point costs, and delivers in a fraction of the time.

With a MES comes the capability to capture and report labor against work orders, track each employee’s
certifications and skill sets, request material, close work orders, and create non-routine work — quite literally, MES
saves significant steps associated with verification of work preformed, non-value add paper handling and rework in
many work processes.

Implementing MES provides proactive visibility into disruptions in the manufacturing process communicating work
instructions in real time using a variety of technologies, including radio frequency devices and Web-based touch
screens. This approach replaces error-prone, paper-based communication with a streamlined, “paperless shop floor”
environment. This real-time control empowers shop floor operations to streamline production and ensure production
according to stringent customer demands.

The MES electronic work instructions provide the context for real time data collection embed data collection points
to ensure completion of all work including quality inspection. The MES ensures that technicians and mechanics
always have the direction required to build products and overhaul equipment, and that data is captured to meet the
enterprise data needs.

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Figure 4-2 MES Shop Floor

By streamlining data acquisition and execution for technicians and mechanics on the factory floor, the MES also
creates efficient processes that consist only of value-added activities. The result is a leaner environment. From
mobile data terminals for material handlers to strategically placed operator stations on the factory floor, directing
operators to perform tasks and collect information in real time using intuitive and graphical user interfaces.

In addition, scripted work instructions and reference data presentation significantly reduce new employee training
time is, while event-driven notification and workflow via electronic communication provides cross training
opportunities for the existing workforce.

4.1 Shop Floor “As Is” Operational Activity Model

Implementation baseline for MES begins with a thorough analysis of the existing processes within the
manufacturing domain.

Within the manufacturing domain, through the years, deployment of commercial and home grown applications meet
specific shop floor needs in an effort to increase productivity through better use of available information. Many rely
totally on paper processes for control of the shop floor, most are unique installations. Below (Figure 4.3) is an
example that depicts the systems deployed at a typical location.

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Quality Production Inventory

System 1 System 8 System 2 System 4 (Manual data entry)
Quality Definitions Product definitions Production Capability
Production Performance Level 4
Inventory Requests
System X Production Schedule
System 7 Enterprise
Special case Production Performance
Production Labor

Detailed
Detailed inventory
Detailed
quality test
System 3 production
System 5 scheduling
scheduling System 2 scheduling
System 4 Inventory
Quality test
Quality test Production Production tracking System 4 Level 3
resource resource Manufacturing
tracking tracking
management management
Inventory Operations
Quality test Quality System 6 System 2 Dispatching
analysis
Production
Anaysis Management
dispatching Dispatching
Inventory
Quality Quality test Product Production data
definition data definition System 8 data collection
management collection management collection System 7
System 1 Inventory
Quality test Production execution
execution execution

White Areas are

paper processing

Machinery
LIMS Set up Level 2
Tools / Fixtures ASRS
Oil Quyality
Reports Inventory pick Process
Metalergy
End Item data Inventory moves Control

Figure 4-3 Typical Shop Floor Systems

Deployment of Automated Information Systems (AIS), each system satisfies an immediate manufacturing need
result, in a manufacturing domain of single function silo applications with overlapping data stores and manual paper
processes filling the data sharing gaps. Add to the complexity, as new technologies became available to users
outside of the IT group, home grown solutions proliferated that produced data stores which fell off the IT radar.
Attempts to solve the data sharing shortcomings result in point to point data connections. The point to point
connections while providing some relief proved expensive to implement and difficult to maintain as the number of
connections grew or aging systems had to be replaced.

The As Is model (Figure 4.4) shows the production process dependence on paper to fill information gaps within
manufacturing.

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Plan
Information barrier created by Make
paper process – non-routine
work is not scheduled

Process
Planning
System 1
Information barrier created by
Process System 2 paper process – planning and
definition
scheduling lacks timely status
information
Paper based
WO
schedule

Process
Paper Process
Execution
Plan
Paper Process
Status and
material use
Production
Record

Figure 4-4 Process Execution Detail As Is

The information flow disconnect is especially problematic in the make activities where real time information is
critical and Shop floor data for status of work in progress, exceptions and non-routine work to be scheduled is not
received by the planning and scheduling group until a crisis arises. The production record becomes multitudes of
scanned pages from varied sources.

Paper is easy to implement, easy to use, and requires little training. Yet paper is the great inhibitor of efficiency in
process operations management. Paper documents travel through the course of manufacturing, ending in archive
cabinets. The value of the information is lost to the enterprise as is visibility of the shop floor activities. Paper also
defines the inputs and outputs of functional departments creating "walls" that hinder teamwork.

4.2 Shop Floor “To Be” Operational Activity Model

Starting with the end goal and work back is applicable to MES project. Identify the desired future state model
before launching into the MES design.

MES, provides a modular solution designed to collect and provide visibility into shop floor data. It will provide the
information needed by shop floor supervisors, plant managers, and upper management to measure current
performance, analyze operations and identify opportunities for improvement.

The MES subsumes fragmented shop floor applications unifying the functions performed by legacy systems
eliminating the need for cross application integration. Functional integration between MES platform enterprise
systems provides bidirectional synchronization of master data and real time exchange of operational data

The To Be Shop Floor System diagram (Figure 4.5) shows the dramatic change from the As Is. The MES provides a
unified shop floor environment that replaces the disconnected shop floor applications. Data now is in electronic
format and readily transacted to the enterprise systems.

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Figure 4-5 To Be Shop Floor Systems

Elimination of the information flow disconnects in the make activities where real time information is critical.
Process execution is entirely electronic (Figure 8) with real time shop floor data for status of work in progress,
exceptions and non-routine work to be scheduled updates to the planning and scheduling group. The production
record package is now electronic.

Plan
Make
Information barrier eliminated –
non-routine work is scheduled

Process
Planning
MES
Process ERP Information barrier eliminated –
definition
planning and scheduling gets
timely status information
Electronic
WO
schedule

Process
Electronic Work
Execution
Instructions
Electronic
Status and
material use
End Item Data
Package

Figure 4-6 Process Execution Detail To Be

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The MES stores all history for each item (See Figure 4.7), including work instructions, critical tolerance data, buyoff
signatures, discrepancies, rework, operator certifications and the complete product genealogy. The data collected
during process execution is stored in a relational database from which it is possible to create a multitude of reports
and transactions that will satisfy the demands of the internal enterprise as well as external systems designated as the
system of record.

Figure 4-7 Data Collection and Reporting

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4.3 Shop Floor Systems – Organizational View

No model is complete without consideration for people and their role changes with the transition from the current
(AS IS) to the future (TO BE) operational paradigms. A depiction of environmental role change shown in Figure
4.8, concerns employees normally engaged in shop floor activities (level 3) that will migrate from legacy system
operation to MES users. MES subsumes the legacy systems now used by these employees with the production
activity now within the boundary of MES.

Figure 4-8 Organization View

5 Shop Floor Data Exchange

Data exchange and integration between systems must support the desired shop floor business processes in the future
state (To be model) and not become a technical exercise. Data existence is not sufficient reason for its inclusion in
the interface designs. Data management practices must align with the Data management. There are essentially two
categories of data exchanged; master data is relatively static data that defines the product attributes and the plant
resources used in the manufacturing activities, and operational data that is context sensitive dynamic data generated
during normal plant activities consisting of measurements and actions taken during the work process.

With a bi-directional interface, the data may originate in either system updating the other system through an
interface. Data origin does not necessarily predict the system of record. Many factors influence data origination
such as the convenience of data availability varying with the type of production program.

The ERP handles job costing, financials, purchasing, inventory control, production planning, and scheduling. The
MES creates the detailed work instructions for each work center within the work flow route. Both systems utilize
the same Master data for different purposes and must be in harmony.

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The PLM structure handles the process

definition encompassing the intellectual
property of the manufacturing domain
and it is imperative that the “To Be”
model leverage this intellectual property
in current shop floor systems by mapping
the contents to the MES.

Efficient interface between applications

relies on the use of standards and tools

Figure 5-2 Shop Floor Work Center

provided by organizations such as Open

Applications Group Integration Specification
(OAGIS) and World Batch Form (WBF) to
simplify the effort in data exchange between
MES and ERP.

Figure 5-1 Product Data

5.1 Product Data
The product definition activity is outside of the MES scope; however, the shop floor activities and production
planning activities require access to master data such as engineering drawings, parts lists, material specifications,
and a plan for manufacture and overhaul.

PLM systems maintain product data as directed by Research, Development, and Engineering Centers. The data is
available to the manufacturing domain as documents, CAD drawings and electronic BOMs, and procedures.

5.2 Plant Resources

Product data is just one part of the master data required for manufacture, repair and maintenance within the
manufacturing domain installations. The locally defined and held organization and availability of plant resources is
also master data.

The shop floor is composed of Work Centers (WC) organized to provide specific manufacturing capabilities.
Within each work center are the skilled people, machinery and tools required to fulfill the specialized tasks assigned
to the work center.

Routes organize the work flow through the work centers where parts pass from one specialized work center to
another until the manufacturing or overhaul process is complete.

The work center and route concept is central to job costing, scheduling and the work flow through the plant.

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5.3 Operational Data Exchange

The planning and scheduling of production activities is the role of the ERP system. Gathering the shop floor
information efficiently and communicating that information is the role of the MES. Orchestrating the complex
activities within the manufacturing demands sophisticated coordination with real time data from the shop floor

Production is composed of manageable work segments designed for a work center (WC), equipped with people,
machinery and tools organized to carry out specific tasks.

The ERP system releases work to MES to inform a work center of a work segment. MES relates the work to shop
orders that contain detailed work instructions describing how to carry out the assigned work. Figure 5.3 shows the
people that use each system and the exchange of information between systems at a typical work center.

Master Scheduler
Purchasing
Shipping
Work Schedule
Inventory Planning

Inventory
Office ERP

Shop Floor Work Center MES

Work Conformation
Production Changes
WIP Status / Location
Material Labor Reporting
Manager Process
Execution Materials Consumption
Material Arrival
Material Request

Production
Control

Transport
Manufacturing

Quality Assurance

Figure 5-3 Work Center Production Execution Activities

A series of real time exchanges of information transactions between the MES and ERP coordinates the shop activity.

The MES matches shop orders to the released work and dispatches them for execution. Shop floor personnel
interact with the MES through data terminals to access work instructions and confirm work accomplished. Through
the interaction with shop floor personnel the MES issues transactions to the ERP updating progress, reporting labor
hours, reporting materials consumed, reporting any changes to the production sequence, and requesting additional
materials.

The MES transactions are event driven, automatic, and transparent to shop floor personnel.

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5.4 Systems Interface Model

Communication between the MES applications and other enterprise applications is through an Enterprise Service
Bus (ESB). An ESB acts essentially as a data traffic director in the system to transfer data from one application to
another. When data is put on the service bus, the ESB decides which other application(s) is looking for this data and
forwards it on.

The ESB addresses “How” of data transfer between systems. The next step in the process is to determine “What”
data to transfer between each application and “What” the format of this data needs to be.

Industry standards identify the type of data needed, i.e. material consumption, material production, labor, and
equipment usage. The specific transactions, the data content, and the volume / frequency of data transfers are to be
determined during the MES project development.

Specifically the ANSI/ISA-95 consists of the following parts under the general title Enterprise-Control System
Integration:
• Part 1: Models and terminology
• Part 2: Objects and attributes for Enterprise-Control System Integration
• Part 3: Models of manufacturing operations management
• Part 4: Object models and attributes of manufacturing operations management
• Part 5: Business to manufacturing transactions

Utilizing the various functional

Quality Definitions PLM Product definitions ERP
Production Capability
Production Performance models developed the data
Inventory Requests

Special case
Production Schedule
Production Performance
Production Labor
necessary to support each area is
clearly identified. With the
Detailed information type and frequency
Detailed Detailed inventory
quality test
scheduling
production
scheduling
scheduling required by each user role to
Quality test
resource
Quality test Production Production
Inventory
tracking support individual work
tracking resource tracking
management management
Inventory processes and supporting
Quality
Quality test
dispatching
Quality
analysis
Production
Production
Dispatching
Anaysis Inventory
Dispatching
information such as compliance
Inventory
Quality
definition
Quality test
data
Product
definition
Production
data
data
collection
with safety, regulations, and
management collection management collection
Inventory other imposed policies. Each
Quality test Production execution
execution execution data flow has characteristics
regarding frequency, direction
and expected system response
Figure 5-4 Required Data Flows that form patterns.

The ANSI/ISA–S95.00.01–2000 Enterprise-Control System Integration - Part 1: Models and Terminology and
ANSI/ISA–95.00.02–2001 Enterprise-Control System Integration Part 2: Object Model Attributes define
common definitions and attributes for each data flow identified through the functional modeling and facilitation of
the technical implementation of the data integration through the use of published data schemas.

6 Summary
Within the complex world of discrete manufacturing, with original equipment production along with the
unpredictable activities in repair and maintenance application of industry standards streamline the design effort and
harmonize the discussions between the stakeholders. Starting with real world situation, multiple facilities and
operations that evolved over many years into a current jumble of systems, formal and informal procedures and
practices combine to build models to design a new operating environment.

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