Sep 3, 2020
About the Customer
Engineering Industries eXcellence’s world-class Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Software Development teams have just delivered another successful multi-site transformation initiative for one of our long-standing customers and an industry leader in agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology manufacturing.
The Customer’s Challenge
Our Industries eXcellence division has been working with the customer for a number of years as their strategic partner for Digital Manufacturing. Our team has led a number of projects and programs aimed at the digitalization, optimization and standardization of the customer’s different manufacturing processes across their global enterprise. In this latest initiative, our team was brought in to design and develop the integration points between the customer’s global MES solution, based on Siemens SIMATIC IT (now Opcenter Execution Process), and a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system adopted as part of a standardization effort following the customer’s acquisition a few years ago.
The switchover to the new ERP system (SAP) had a huge impact on functionality in terms of how the MES and ERP systems interacted, so the software interface between them had to be redesigned in order to effectively enable the alignment between enterprise planning and production execution. On top of this, the integration had to be built to accommodate and reflect the specific needs and requirements of each of the 2 lines of the customer’s manufacturing business – row crop or seed production and chemical or crop protection production.
About the Project
This integration was no easy undertaking, but one that the Engineering Industries eXcellence team, who had built the global MES templates now running at a number of the customer’s sites worldwide, and who have over the years become unequaled experts in the customer’s unique manufacturing processes, was ready and up for the challenge. Leveraging this expertise, along with our hybrid software development methodology centered around priority-based agile sprints, we worked closely with the customer to design, develop and implement a customized software interface between their ERP and MES solutions at 3 North American sites. The time and effort, not to mention costs, required to deliver this project were significantly reduced by the reusability of the global templates on which the customer’s MES was based. With the interface successfully up and running, the customer can now look to next steps and new initiatives along their digital transformation roadmap.
Engineering’s Advantage
As in most enterprises, both the customer's ERP system and their MES play a vital role in the success of the manufacturing business as a whole. The ERP system manages high-level activities related to sales orders, accounting, procurement, inventories, risk management and supply chain operations. The MES is used to drive manufacturing operations by overseeing and reporting on plant activities as events occur, in real time. ERP systems work within time frames of months, weeks and days. Manufacturing Execution Systems work within time frames of days, shifts, hours and minutes. The integration between the two enables manufacturers to orchestrate work orders and other resource needs.
Thanks to the interface delivered, the high-level planning activities covered by the customer’s ERP system will feed the granular production planning of their MES, and the MES' finite planning and production tracking will in turn feed back to the company level to inform ERP functions such as inventory and customer management. A true Industry 4.0 data flow and control loop has been created, giving our customer the functionality and insight needed to ensure efficiency and complete alignment between their business planning and manufacturing processes.
