Manufacturing Execution System (MES)
MES may operate across multiple function areas, for example: management of product definitions across the product life-cycle, resource scheduling, order execution and dispatch, production analysis and downtime management for overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), product quality, or materials track and trace. MES creates the "as-built" record, capturing the data, processes and outcomes of the manufacturing process. This can be especially important in regulated industries, such as food and beverage or pharmaceutical, where documentation and proof of processes, events and actions may be required.
The idea of MES might be seen as an intermediate step between, on the one hand, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) or process control system on the other.
Traceability
The iTAC.MES.Suite answers the key questions of traceability for all serialized individual items on the basis of which master data, with which production order, at what time, on which machines, with which quality and measurement data and using which supplier lots and unit was the product/individual item manufactured?
iTAC’s active traceability is characterized by interlocking individual processes and work steps to minimize the production of faulty items. Failures within the production process can be detected early on in real-time and can then be corrected.
The iTAC.MES.Suite offers bidirectional communication between the MES software and the production plants, which is guaranteed via standardized software functions (API-Service Adapter).
Materials & Logistics
The Material & Logistics service enables better planning security.
System interfaces capture the actual use of raw materials according to the work step and then transfers this data via the iTAC.MES.Suite to the stock-keeping ERP system.
This way, the software ensures that the right material is in the right quantity, in expected quality, is in the right place and at the right time!
Ultimately, the Material & Logistics service of the iTAC.MES.Suite results in a great improvement in material and production planning.
Quality Management
In order to evaluate the quality of products and production processes, the iTAC.MES.Suite provides analysis and reporting functions for all product-relevant quality data with its Computer Aided Quality (CAQ) service. The data can be directly evaluated during the production process and thus reflects the current quality of production.
Using measurement data, failure data and its statistical evaluation, processes can be analyzed in detail and failures avoided within a continuous improvement process even before beginning production. Quality data can be easily exchanged between the manufacturer and the supplier.
The iTAC.MES.Suite performs five different types of quality analysis:
– Test planning – Resource analysis
– Product analysis – Fault analysis
– Measurement value analysis
Production Management
An increase in the efficiency of production equipment can be achieved with the aid of the production management service of the iTAC.MES.Suite. Based on the integrated production and machine data collection (PDC/MDC), which can be performed automatically or manually via an input client, the solution evaluates the captured data in real-time and analyzes it.
The analysis includes the comparison of planned setup and process times with real times, of required quantities with manufactured quantities (including scrap) and the examination of unplanned downtimes. Key figures such as the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), productivity, utilization etc. are the descriptive Key Performance Indicators.
Add-on Services
The iTAC.MES.Suite includes an extensive range of add-on services that provide you with even more guidance on how to optimize your entire manufacturing processes.
Among other things, they include functionalities such as:
– Alert Management
– Archiving
– Interface Integration
Those additional services offer the maximum transparency for managing manufacturing-relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Advanced Analytics
The advanced analytics service from iTAC uncovers unknown correlations, hidden patterns and shows useful information from the data.
Structured data from the iTAC.MES.Suite, unstructured data collected by sensors, for example, and data entered manually by the operator are merged and subjected to analysis processes. The resulting data serves as a basis e.g. for predictive maintenance and further process optimization. In conclusion, this results in improved quality and higher efficiency.
Business Intelligence
iTAC.MES.Suite offers a fully adequate, IT-independent Business Intelligence service: the iTAC.BI.Portal. This comprehensive solution can be seamlessly integrated into existing systems and supports companies in different industries to increase their productivity, efficiency and profitability.
– web-based, centralized instance for analyzing, reporting and data editing
– highly scalable
– information from all data sources can be integrated and provided to internal and external users
– decision-relevant information can be consolidated and administrated
– support of mobile terminals such as smartphones and tablets
The iTAC.BI.Portal gives you the highest transparency for key figure management. Production-relevant KPIs are available mobile and users can immediately react to change.