Manufacturing Workshop-level management system (MES) and its typical structure

Source: Internet
Author: User
Manufacturing Workshop-level management system (MES) and its typical structure

Chen Yu
2004-7-16
Contribution
The Manufacturing Execution Management System (MES) is the bond of Enterprise CIMS Information Integration, and is the basic technical means to implement enterprise agile manufacturing strategy and implement agile workshop production. This paper introduces the concept and Function Model of MES, as well as the relationship between MES and ERP and on-site automation systems, and describes the typical structure of MES system.

1. Summary

Manufacturing is an important pillar industry of China's national economy and occupies a central position in the secondary industry. With China's accession to the WTO and economic globalization, China is becoming the center of the world's manufacturing industry. China's manufacturing enterprises are facing increasingly fierce competition at home and abroad. The most important thing is how to rapidly improve the core competitiveness of enterprises. It is to use informatization to drive industrialization, speed up the informatization process, and take the new industrialization path, achieve leapfrog development of productivity in the whole society.

Throughout the application status of China's manufacturing information system, the focus of construction is generally on the ERP management system and shop floor control system (SFC. However, product marketing has quickly evolved from production-oriented to market-oriented and competitive-oriented over the past two decades. As a result, it has also posed challenges to the management and organization of production sites of manufacturing enterprises, relying solely on ERP and on-site automation systems is often unable to cope with this new situation.

Manufacturing Execution System (MES) can fill this gap. Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is a production management technology and real-time information system that has developed rapidly internationally and is oriented to the workshop layer in the past 10 years. MES can provide users with a rapid response, elastic and refined manufacturing environment, help enterprises reduce costs, deliver on schedule, improve product quality and improve service quality. Applicable to different industries (household appliances, automobiles, semiconductors, communications, IT, and pharmaceuticals ), it can provide good enterprise information management for single mass production and hybrid manufacturing enterprises with Multiple Varieties of small batch production and mass production. At present, mes systems have become a common phenomenon for well-known foreign enterprises. Many domestic enterprises are gradually adopting this technology to enhance their core competitiveness.

2. Information "fault" between the enterprise planning layer and the process control layer

The traditional production process adopted by China's manufacturing industry over the years is characterized by "from top to bottom" Planned production. Simply put, from the planning layer to the production control layer: The company develops a production plan based on the order or market conditions-the production plan arrives at the production site-organizes production-product delivery. The focus of enterprise management informatization construction is mostly on the planning layer for production planning management and general affairs processing. For example, ERP is "in place" at the upper planning layer of the enterprise, which is used to integrate the existing production resources of the enterprise and compile the production plan. In the lower-layer production control layer, enterprises mainly use automated production equipment, automated testing equipment, and automated logistics and storage equipment to solve the production bottleneck of specific production (process, implement automatic control at the production site.

Due to the changes in the market environment and the constant updates of modern production management concepts, the key to ensuring a sound operation of a manufacturing enterprise is to make the "Plan" work closely with "production, enterprise and workshop management personnel can grasp the changes at the production site in the shortest time, make accurate judgments and respond quickly, and ensure that the production plan is properly and rapidly corrected. Although ERP and on-site automation systems have developed to a very mature level, the ERP system serves the upper layer of enterprise management, generally, direct and detailed support is not provided for the management process at the workshop layer. The on-site automation system mainly monitors on-site equipment and process parameters. It can provide on-site inspection and statistical data to management personnel, but it is not a real management system. Therefore, there is a "fault" between the ERP system and the on-site automation system in terms of management information, which often seems helpless or weak in terms of scheduling and management requirements on the user's workshop. For example, it is difficult to provide comprehensive solutions to the following typical workshop management problems:
• Can all production process information of these products be traced back based on the product number in case of product complaints? Can it be immediately identified: raw material suppliers, operating machines, operators, processes, production time and key process parameters?
• When multiple types of products need to be assembled in a production line, can the system automatically check and run prompts to prevent assembly errors, production process errors, mixed product installation and product handover errors?
• What are the top five product defects on the production line in the past 12 hours? What are the quantity of defective products?
• What are the quantities of each product in the current warehouse, in-process, and in-process processes? Which suppliers should they supply separately? When can the service be delivered in a timely manner?
• How long is production lines and processing equipment in production, and how long is it stopped or idling? The main reason that affects the potential of equipment production is: equipment failure? Scheduling error? Material supply is not timely? Insufficient worker training? Or is the process indicator unreasonable?
• Is it possible to automatically collect statistics and analyze the product quality inspection data to precisely distinguish between random and abnormal fluctuations in product quality and eliminate potential quality hazards?
• Can we abolish manual reports and automatically count the production quantity, pass rate, and defect code of each process?

MES is located at the execution layer between the planning layer and the on-site automation system. It is mainly responsible for workshop production management and scheduling execution. A well-designed MES system can integrate management functions such as production scheduling, Product tracking, quality control, equipment failure analysis, and network reports on a unified platform, by using a unified database and network connection, workshop management information services can be provided for production departments, quality control departments, process departments, and logistics departments. The system helps enterprises implement complete closed-loop production by emphasizing the overall optimization of the manufacturing process, and assists enterprises in establishing an integrated and real-time ERP/MES/SFC information system.

3. Manufacturing Execution System MES and its Functions

3.1 mes Definition
MES is a new concept proposed by the US management community in 1990s. Amr (Advanced Manufacturing Research), an advanced manufacturing Research Institute in the United States, found that existing enterprise production management systems are generally enterprise management software represented by ERP/MRPII, the production process monitoring software, represented by SCADA and HMI (Human Machine inteface), can automate the operation process, and supports the integration of MES software into enterprises. According to the survey results, the three-tier enterprise integration model (1) proposed by AMR in 1992 ).

Mesa International (mes International Federation) is a trade federation that promotes mes ideas and products. It has developed a series of research, analysis and development plans to help its member organizations promote MES in the business world. Mesa White Paper (Mesa White Paper No. 6, 1997) defines mes systems as follows:
• The MES system acts as the information transmitter optimized for production activities during the process from single product output to finished product output.
• When an event changes, rapid response is made through real-time correct information, production execution system specifications, original work conditions, data responses and feedback to reduce production activities without additional value, improve the efficiency of the factory production process.
• Mes improves production conditions, punctual shipment, inventory turnover, gross profit, and cash flow efficiency. Mes also provides a two-way production information flow between enterprises and the supply chain.

Mesa whitepaper (Mesa White Paper No. 3, 1997) describes the job interaction and information flow between enterprise resource planning (ERP) and MES and control systems, as shown in figure 2.

The ERP and other systems on the left of the figure need to pay attention to the product inventory, customer order status and material requirements at any time, and then transmit the information to MES for the execution system to produce or arrange inventory to meet customer order requirements. For mes, this layer is the planning layer of production.

The Central Department is divided into mes systems, responsible for product manufacturing. The product specifications, models, parameters, and other relevant information are stored in this system, MES converts the related information of this product into a job program and provides it to the control system operator or machine equipment for use.

The right part is the control system. When the operating procedures, related processes, documents and other related production requirements are ready, the control system will use all the resources (software, hardware and personnel) in the factory) completes the manufacturing process to achieve the product production goal.

Functions of 3.2 mes
According to the definition of MES, MES is a series of management functions, rather than a set of software systems. It can be a collection of functional software for various production management. Mesa summarizes eleven major mes functional modules through the practices of its members, including:
Detailed Process Scheduling
Resource allocation and status management
Production Unit Allocation
Process Management
Human Resource Management
Maintenance Management
Quality Management
Document Control
Product tracking and product list management
Performance analysis and data collection

The relationship between mes function models and other enterprise information systems is shown in figure 3. The actual mes product may contain one or more functional modules.

4. Typical mes Structure

As MES plays the role of "information transmitter" optimized for production activities throughout the entire process from single-product to finished product output, MES must have multiple functions and be able to serve production, quality control, technology, logistics and other departments at the same time. This determines that the structural design of MES must meet the following principles:
• Mes should be a Distributed Computer System
• The MES system can be connected with other manufacturing information systems of the enterprise to provide efficient enterprise management functions.
• "It focuses on production behavior information and provides direct support for enterprise decision-making systems" (Mesa 1997)

Because the factory may purchase appropriate mes modules from different software vendors, or integrate the existing management systems in the workshop as part of the MES function, as a result, mes systems in many factories are actually a hodgedge. Each system has its own processing logic, database, data model, and communication mechanism. Because mes applications are often systems that meet key tasks, it is difficult for such systems to be upgraded along with technological updates.

A mes system based on a unified hardware and software platform usually uses industrial PC, PLC, HMI, and other equipment as the main component of each production unit (Production Area) function station in the workshop, through data collection and feedback from various production units, an open Ethernet network covering the entire plant or entire pipeline can meet closed-loop production management needs. MES database server is used as the core of the system for real-time data access and comparison to achieve monitoring, control, and management of production information. The system is designed based on the large-scale relational database technology to facilitate the storage, comparison, and operation of a large amount of real-time data, generate various statistical analysis reports, and based on stable web applications, provides standard Internet browsing queries and remote data requests. Current typical mes Structure Model 4.

Within the Enterprise, each function station performs interactive operations on MES servers through the LAN, and other query terminals also query the data, reports, and graphics provided by MES after processing through the LAN. Outside the Enterprise, you can connect to MES through the Internet to publish or read system information within the configured permissions. The company's internal management, external organizations and other relevant business units form a close whole through mes, so as to achieve real-time information sharing, so that business processes become orderly and efficient.

5. Mes and ERP

Although ERP and MES have very good complementary functions, they do not need to depend on each other in the process of enterprise informatization construction. In terms of production planning management, quality management and logistics management, MES and ERP systems can expand and interconnect functions to build a more complete modern enterprise information management system. When an enterprise already has an ERP system, it can integrate mes with the ERP system to optimize the company's information management and more effectively ensure the realization of business goals.

The advantages of MES integration with ERP systems are as follows:
• Further improve the existing operation process to achieve the integration of enterprise management and workshop management standards, thus shortening product cycles and improving labor productivity.
• Further Transforming the information technology infrastructure to achieve centralized management of internal information and data, fundamentally reducing the internal circulation time of information and data.
• Work with the Supply Chain Management (SCM) system to reduce supply chain costs, enhance rapid response to customer needs, optimize customer services and improve the overall work efficiency of the company.
• The function of updating and managing real-time statistics of financial system data on the current day is added to achieve the goal of daily checkout.
• The production plan based on real-time data reflects the overall production situation in a more accurate and timely manner.

6. Prospect of MES

MES is a production management technology and real-time information system oriented to the workshop layer. It is a basic technical means for implementing the agile manufacturing strategy of enterprises and achieving agile workshop production. Because mes emphasizes control and coordination, it not only provides a good planning system for modern manufacturing information systems, but also enables the implementation of the plan to the Implementation System of the scheduler. Therefore, in just a few years, MES has been rapidly popularized in foreign enterprises and has brought huge economic benefits to enterprises.

Our enterprise has been implementing MRPII/ERP-Based Enterprise Management Software for nearly 20 years. In the industry, there are a large number of ERP vendors and development teams, however, only a small number of manufacturers will develop towards mes because MES is closely integrated with industrial control, its R & D and implementation require a strong industrial automation Foundation and industrial field engineering experience. This is a relatively high technical threshold and many erp it vendors are rejected. However, we also believe that with the development of the industry and the economic scale, a considerable number of IT vendors will merge or closely cooperate with automation manufacturers and manufacturing enterprises. Two to three years later, MES manufacturers may spring up, and their technologies and implementation methods will become increasingly mature.

References:
[1] Mesa International, "mes explained: a high level vision," white paper6 (pitt0000gh: Manufacturing Execution Systems Assoc., 1997 ).
[2] Mesa International, "mes functionalities & MRP to MES data flow possibilities," white paper2 (pitt0000gh: Manufacturing Execution Systems Assoc., 1997 ).
[3] Rao Yuncheng, Li bacon, Li shuxia, etc. Current Situation and Development Trend of manufacturing execution system. Mechanical Science and Technology. 2002.21 (6 ).
[4] Sun Yu, Chen Jie, Jiang xiaochun, Li dongbo. Research on Manufacturing Execution System. High-tech communication. 1999.10: 60-62.
[5] Yu Haibin, Zhu Yunlong. manufacturing execution system that can be integrated. Computer Integrated Manufacturing System cims.2000. 6 (6 ).
[6] Mesa International, "execution-Driven Manufacturing Management for competitive advantage," white paper5 (pitt0000gh: Manufacturing Execution Systems Assoc., 1997 ).

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