Question

Consider that your company is planning to develop a manufacturing Information Systems. What basic functions are needed and which type of input data are needed for each function. Briefly explain. (Not more than one page)

Answer 1

A Manufacturing Information System or a Manufacturing Execution System(MES) is a logic that integrates the operations of the various departments on the production floor and has the capability to perform various functions like resource scheduling, order execution, and production analysis. This helps to automate majority portion of the production process and ensure a stable, controlled production flow. An MES is the digital twin of a physical process environment, it must take care of all the back end calculations of the amount of raw material required and currently produced units - a logical control cementing the plant floor.

Basic Functions all MES(Manufacturing Execution System) must perform :

• Data Collection and Storage: The MES connects numerous sensors over the plant floor and accepts the data generated by the production process, processes the data and stores it in data lakes. This data collection is a major function as the collected data is analysed to determine bottlenecks and process improvements.
• Production Tracking and end-to-end Visibility: Its real time capabilities enable continuous monitoring of the production processes and ability to locate within the plant, Work-in-Progress inventory at the click of a button.
• Quality Improvement: As the entire process is standardized, the defect detection and solution time is very low which reduces the probability of defects the end product has.
• Maintenance Scheduling: Preventive maintenance can be scheduled to block automated and manual process during maintenance operations.
• Productivity monitoring: As every bit of information regarding the process is digitally controlled, defining accurate productivity trends is quite easy.

Types of Input data into MES(Manufacturing Execution System) : The following is a tentative list of inputs :

• Names of raw material and assembled goods input
• Quantity of each available at storage
• Process Names
• Process Layout
• Input details as specified otherwise
• Output details
• Input storage locations

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