Need for adaptive manufacturing fuels growth in MES mkt

MUMBAI:  With most manufacturers aiming to sell their products globally, they must integrate data from the shop floor and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems during the manufacturing process. However, tracking the genealogy of products, and ensuring uniform quality at all global locations remains a challenge. Manufacturing execution systems (MES) can provide a seamless flow of data between the shop floor and the enterprise systems thereby optimizing plant activity.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Strategic Analysis of the World Manufacturing Execution Systems Market, reveals that the market earned revenues of $2,769.8 million in 2006 and estimates this to reach $6,038.1 million in 2013.

To maintain their competitive edge, manufacturing companies will have to rely on automated solutions to make informed decisions. Most major ERP and automation vendors have realized that MES expenditures have shifted.

"Redundant MES or homegrown solutions that are neither flexible nor traceable are still operative in most manufacturing plants," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Sanjeev R. Sridharan. "An adaptive MES that is likely to help an enterprise achieve its critical management goals by uniformly measuring KPIs, and replicating best practices in a uniform manner across all global locations is required."

However, given that the highly fragmented MES market focuses on specific geographic locations, smaller MES vendors with limited resources find it difficult to provide multi-site support and implementation. Moreover, few vendors have the technical know-how to provide a uniform and robust architecture that supports global deployment.

"End users are progressing toward standardization and global deployment," says Sridharan. "They are looking for a packaged standards-based MES that is likely to not only cover all the defined functions of MES, but also provide visibility across multiple global sites."

As end users look to procure solutions from larger vendors, both the automation and the ERP vendors drive the MES market to sell their entire solution as a package to provide end-to-end integration. Since ERP and automation vendors do not have MES market insight, they must partner with smaller pure-play MES vendors to deliver solutions.

This strategy provides mutual benefits. For instance, the extensive sales network and brand recognition of the ERP and automation vendors helps the MES solutions sales. Additionally, the ERP and automation vendors gain technological insights from their partnership with MES. Partnerships with larger ERP and automation vendors lead to probable acquisitions of smaller pure-play MES vendors, thus leading to market consolidation and reduced competition.