MES refers to manufacturing execution system, it is a set of production information management system for workshop executive level in manufacturing enterprises. This article summarizes nine functions of MES system.

MES is defined as "a workshop oriented management information system between the upper level planning management system and the lower level of industrial control". It provides operators or managers with the execution and tracking of plans and the current status of all resources (people, equipment, materials, customer requirements, etc.). The purpose is to solve the problem of "black box" in the factory production process and realize the visualization and controllability of the production process.

MES system architecture

The digital workshop combines information, Network, automation, modern management and manufacturing technology, forms a digital manufacturing platform in the workshop, improves the management and production of the workshop, so as to realize intelligent manufacturing.

MES system is the core of digital workshop. MES realizes intelligent workshop manufacturing control, transparent production process, numerical control of manufacturing equipment and integration of production information by means of digital production process control and automation and intelligent technology. Workshop MES mainly includes workshop management system, quality management system, resource management system and data acquisition and analysis system, which are realized by technology platform layer, Network layer and equipment layer.

MES execution system composition

MES system is composed of functional modules such as workshop resource management, production task management, workshop planning and  production scheduling management, production process management, quality process management, material tracking management, workshop monitoring management and statistical analysis, covering manufacturing site management and other aspects. MES is a customizable manufacturing management system, and the process flow and management requirements of different enterprises can be realized through site definition.

1. Workshop resource management of MES system

Workshop resource is the basis of workshop manufacturing and operation of MES system. Workshop resource management mainly manages workshop personnel, equipment, tooling, materials and working hours to ensure normal production, and provides historical records and real-time status information of resource usage.

2. Inventory management of MES system

Warehouse management is to manage all materials in stock in the workshop. Materials in the workshop include self-made parts, outsourcing parts, purchased parts, cutting tools, tooling, spare raw materials, etc. Its functions include: retrieval of materials stored in the warehouse through inventory management, query of current inventory status and historical records; provision of inventory counting and warehouse allocation functions, setting alarm when the inventory of raw materials, tools and tooling is insufficient; provision of warehouse parts in and out operations, including borrowing, return, repair and scrap operations of tools / tooling.

3. MES system production process management

Production process management realizes closed-loop visual control of production process to reduce waste of waiting time, inventory and excessive production. In the production process, bar code, touch screen and machine tool data acquisition are used to track the production schedule in real time. The purpose of production process management is to control production, implement and execute production scheduling, track the status of jobs and workpieces in the workshop, and outsource processes that are not capable of processing at present. Realize the management functions such as process dispatching, process coordination and integration, and display the workshop field information and task progress information in real time through electronic boards.

4. MES production task management

Production task management includes production task receiving and management, task progress display, task query and other functions. Provide all project information, query the specified project, and display the whole production cycle and completion of the project. Provide production progress display, display the tasks of this day, this week and this month by day, week and month, distinguish the phases of tasks by color, and track the project tasks.

5. MES workshop planning and production scheduling management

Production plan is the key and difficult part of workshop production management. Improving the efficiency and accuracy of production planning is an important means to optimize the production process and improve the production management level.

The workshop receives the master production plan, reasonably makes the production and processing plan, supervises the production progress and implementation status according to the current production status (capacity, production preparation and in-process tasks, etc.), production preparation conditions (drawings, tooling and materials, etc.), as well as the project priority and planned completion time and other requirements.

Advanced scheduling tool (APS) combines the real-time load of workshop resources and the implementation schedule of existing plans to form an optimized detailed scheduling plan after capacity balance. It fully takes into account the processing capacity of each equipment, and adjusts at any time according to the actual situation on site. After the completion of automatic scheduling, plan evaluation and manual adjustment shall be carried out. In the production environment of small batch, multi variety and multi process, using advanced scheduling tools can quickly deal with the complex situation of emergency order insertion.

6. Material tracking management of MES system

Through bar code technology to manage and track the logistics in the production process. During the production process, the online status of materials is tracked through barcode scanning, and the material flow process is monitored to ensure the rapid and efficient flow of materials in the workshop production process, which can be queried at any time.

7. Quality process management of MES system

The process inspection and product quality management in the manufacturing process can realize the traceability of process inspection and product quality process, and strictly control the unqualified products and rectification process. Its functions include: to achieve a comprehensive record of key elements in the production process, complete quality traceability, accurate statistics of the qualified rate and unqualified rate of products, and provide quantitative indicators for quality improvement. According to the results of product quality analysis, carry out preventive maintenance on the products leaving the factory.

8. MES system production monitoring management

Production monitoring realizes the monitoring of production process from multiple dimensions such as production schedule and equipment operation, realizes the management of workshop alarm information, including alarm information of equipment failure, personnel absence, quality and other reasons, finds problems in time, reports problems and manages problems, so as to ensure the smooth and controlled production process. Combined with distributed digital control DNC system and MDC system, equipment Networking and data collection are carried out. Realize equipment monitoring and improve utilization rate of bottleneck equipment.

Industrial monitors and industrial display screens are widely used in MES system to realize above monitoring function due to reliable performance.

9. Statistical analysis of MES system

It can carry out statistical query on the data generated in the production process, form a report after analysis, and provide reference data and decision support for subsequent work. The data in the production process is rich. The system customizes different statistical query functions according to the needs, including: product processing progress query; shop WIP query; shop and station task query; complete product matching query; quality statistical analysis; shop capacity (human resource and equipment) utilization analysis; scrap rate / defective rate statistical analysis,. etc.