Manufacturing execution systems: An accelerated enablement protocol

Production facilities deliver value as subsets of larger corporate entities with a key enabler being systems, inclusive of enterprise resource planning and supplementary systems. The enterprise requires operational data for strategic and operational management. The efficiency of top floor to shop floor communication and vice versa, is highly dependent upon the technological maturity of the middle layer or manufacturing execution systems. This research focuses on the development of an evaluation toolset for manufacturing execution systems maturity, specifically determining a ‘business units’ system maturity relative to best practice. The core purpose of this research is to deliver a toolset that expedites the evaluation of current business specific systems. The toolset development is approached on a tiered basis with a business process specific focus. Results analysis focus on current maturity, required maturity and gap emphasis. The potential application of the toolset includes any environment which requires business to manufacturing integration.