1. Introduction

When Engineering or IT managers realize the need to develop a new or replacement computer system to support their manufacturing processes, they begin by closely examining current system designs. This sometimes means forming a team and sending members on trips to distant places to see systems designed for other manufacturers. Business analysts are usually members of such a team because they play an important role in extracting information, understanding requirements, and documenting methods. The overall approach, at best, enables designers to apply new technology towards the development of similar systems. Generally, the analytical approach leads designers to understand current requirements and methods of existing designs. The deployed process typically creates the limitations found in older designs and is unlikely to produce a new design with improved abilities. Many find this process acceptable because they believe technological advancements will drive improvements. Regardless, understanding and documenting current designs is an important first step. However, to improve manufacturing processes, strategists need to examine and compare design methodologies.

Any comparison process of design methodologies is not as simple as pushing a tray and selecting items cafeteria style. It is more like an architect designing a unique superstructure for the very first time. Creating the blueprints is difficult. This is the situation most system strategists find themselves in when they begin to define the requirements of an MES. What does the architect rely on when designing the blueprints for an uncommon superstructure? Education helps, but having a framework document backed by experience is very useful. The Cardinal Cornerstone to MES Success directs system strategists to make foundational design decisions first. This enables designers to build on that foundation towards the development of a highly reliable MES.

There have been numerous books and articles written on the topic of Manufacturing Execution Systems, but the emphasis always seems to describe what these systems can or should do. Indeed, what these systems promise should drive the justification for their development and implementation. Making good on these promises is another story. This explains why, up until now, MES books and articles have a focus on managing automation or providing some nebulous form of supervisory control. To break this paradigm, this book focuses on enabling MES designs to fulfill their promises by arming designers with the information needed to direct automated manufacturing processes.

It does not matter how designers develop an MES or how many times they refine their applications; inaccurate information limits the performance of the system performance. Information accuracy varies depending on the way MES applications collect and feed information to manufacturing processes. If strategists overlook these aspects, manufacturers will need to contend with MES designs that have many operational anomalies that will simply annoy or create significant production losses for manufacturers.

So how do new MES applications get accurate, reliable information to and from manufacturing processes? How can these applications really improve product quality, accurately deliver data, track part movements, detect errors, identify product locations, and support sequential and non-sequential processes while insuring data models remain synchronized with the physical realities of manufacturing? These are just some of the questions addressed in this book. The concepts described are essential for developing a reliable or fundamentally sound MES.

Before any MES can effectively direct a manufacturing process, integrated designs must adapt to machine control fundamentals. Adapting to these fundamentals provides the ability to synchronize computer applications with mechanical machine sequences and moving parts. This ability comes from developing and deploying integrated designs that focus on using the hidden DNA of machines. The DNA revealed in this book, contains the genetic instructions used in the development of all functioning control systems and therefore, all reliable MES designs.

Manufacturers of assembled parts have been trying to stay competitive by investing and using computer systems to support their company's production processes. These systems deliver and collect data from electrical equipment and machine control systems. The ability to deliver information to control systems reliably enables machine designers to develop flexible machines with the power to produce a wide variety of parts. The expanded ability to reliably collect information enables computer applications to feed information back to improve manufacturing processes.

MES is the label sellers of systems are applying to the next generation of computer-based manufacturing systems. Manufacturing Engineering and IT managers too often believe that sophisticated or clever labels warrant the cost to develop new systems. Some also believe that generic "off-the-shelf" solutions may not target the business needs of their manufacturing processes. To ensure a new system efficiently targets and executes a manufacturing process, developers must plan to customize off-the-shelf designs.

Manufacturers should only develop new MES designs if they can articulate and measure expected process improvements. This includes the ability to improve costs associated with implementing or supporting their existing systems and processes. To begin, manufacturers must determine whether their current computer systems are executing processes efficiently. If their systems have many physical interconnections to communicate data between applications, the answer is no! If a proposed new system is merely replacing the role of an existing system, manufacturing strategists must recognize they are already using an MES.

To avoid any confusion associated with various labels, the following terms define two types of computer-based manufacturing systems:

* Manufacturing Support System: a computer system designed to perform a standalone set of tasks.

* Manufacturing Execution System: a computer system designed to perform many otherwise standalone sets of tasks.

The obvious difference between the two systems is the application scope. Manufacturing support system (MSS) designs use many standalone systems to separately collect...