Once upon a time, manufacturers operated on a simple build-to-stock model. They built 100 or 100,000 of an item and sold them via distribution networks. They kept track of inventory and made more of the item once stocks dipped below a threshold. Rush jobs were both rare and expensive, and configuration options almost as limited as "any color as long as it's black."

Things have changed. Concepts like just-in-time manufacturing, build-to-order (BTO), end-to-end supply chain visibility and the explosion in contract manufacturing have revolutionized plant management.

"We can have goods en route to the airport, and the customer calls us requesting a change," says Mannon Wong, vice president of operations at San Jose-based Netro Corp., a manufacturer of broadband wireless access systems. "These days, you have to go out of your way to accommodate such requests."

Netro copes with the need to incorporate that kind of flexibility into its manufacturing processes by using a Web-based manufacturing execution system (MES) from San Jose-based Datasweep Inc. The MES helps the company maintain tight control over an operation in which 99 percent of manufacturing is outsourced and which was designed to let customers adjust hundreds of possible product configurations up until final delivery.

MES evolved during the 1980s and '90s as a staple of semiconductor fabrication plants and big aerospace and pharmaceutical concerns. But at $500,000 to $2 million per installation, the technology remained in the hands of big manufacturers and big government. As the name suggests, MES was originally designed to allow better management of production within a single factory.

Then, a series of changes pushed MES off the radar: The move from build-to-stock to BTO placed attention on the order end of the manufacturing equation, driving the broad adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM); an increasing dependency on contract manufacturing necessitated tight integration with suppliers using supply chain management (SCM) software; and the arrival of the Internet sent companies scurrying to develop a Web presence and e-business applications.

Kevin Prouty, an analyst at AMR Research Inc. in Boston, says he's seen a revival of interest in MES; he attributes the turnaround to the economic downturn and the evolution of MES technology. For several years, companies focused on external-facing systems. But the moment the technology bubble burst, many firms suffered an immediate introversion. Attention shifted back to internal efficiencies, and MES regained its allure.

All the attention on the order-taking side created an imbalance. Companies could now accept orders, coordinate supply chain logistics and communicate with customers like never before. This exposed the weakest link visibility of the manufacturing floor. And that's where MES comes in.

MES has evolved from an inflexible, monolithic offering for the elite few into a collaborative tool that reaches beyond the walls of a single factory. It exposes shop-floor data from any of a company's manufacturing plants to anyone in the supply chain. While ERP addresses what has happened (historical and financial data) and SCM deals with what will happen, MES fills a critical gap what's happening now.

For example, customers such

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine