MES users face a critical choice – PLM or ERP

As leading manufacturers become digital manufacturing enterprises, their approach to architecting their systems – from enterprise planning and product design to shop-floor execution and control – holds the key to their success. The types of systems they choose should be guided by the requirements of their manufacturing processes – whether they are complex engineer-to-order processes, with multiple manufacturing orders coming from the PLM, or whether they are make-to-stock processes, where an ERP may be generating the manufacturing order. These pose different demands on the system that translates design into physical products on the shop floor, the manufacturing execution system (MES).

As we see product requirements evolve, even as mechatronic products become more customized as they cater to consumer preferences, manufacturing will continue to move toward the configure/engineer end of the process spectrum. Anticipating the evolution of product requirements, and considering the significant investment required to implement systems and the difficulty in replacing them, today’s manufacturing leaders are taking a hard look at how their MES systems are designed. Read the whitepaper, MES users face a critical choice: PLM or ERP, to learn more.