If you’ve had a company for some time, probably it’s not the first time you have searched for MES software for the CNC machining workshop. As you started your research, you were spoilt for choice with Google results. Still, once you tried different solutions, it turned out quickly that they wouldn’t give you the upper hand: although a manufacturing ERP offers many great features, you can lose flexibility - your most significant competitive advantage.
Suppose you have gone even further and implemented an advertised brand of ERP software. Your sales team is busy, new orders are flooding, and all your people on the shop floor have been trained on its use. You’ve spent boatloads of money on ERP modules, IT infrastructure, and consultants and have all the correct systems ready to work. Yet you blew a critical delivery date last week, and you still walk out to the shop several times a day to check on jobs. That speaks volumes about your efficiency and manufacturing management.
Whether you work in die and mould manufacturing, make things from steel, aluminium, and iron, or specialise in milling, turning or cutting, we know it’s tough to do business in post-pandemic reality. Many leasing contracts for CNC machines, usage of tools and last but not least, the costs of labour. You are still searching for something which would help you to increase profitability and cut costs.
It’s time to step up to something better: the precision and accuracy of Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software - your manufacturing nirvana.
What is MES?
A manufacturing execution system, or MES, is a comprehensive, dynamic software system that monitors, tracks, documents, and controls the process of manufacturing goods, from raw materials to finished products.
The definition is simple, but for many people, it can be confusing, as hundreds of different products are available on the market. Generally, MES is about collecting data directly from the shop floor operations and machine tools so that you can make better decisions based on much more accurate indicators.
When you run a CNC business every day, you must deliver top quality, precision and accuracy. You can’t afford to have defective or inconsistent parts (and, honestly, who can?). The whole point of CNC machining is to produce detailed parts after detailed parts with the utmost precision. There is no room for error or delays in the form of repetitive bottlenecks.
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MES software delivers that quality and provides higher production visibility and job tracking levels than ERP. You can manage your manufacturing business with ease.
Paperless Manufacturing
Do you still operate on pen and paper? Yikes! Some mistakes come from using paper notebooks, spreadsheets/whiteboards in the production hall. You can avoid them by tracking and documenting manufacturing steps digitally. Instead of leaving a paper trail, use online monitoring.
Kanban-style board comes in handy: you can prepare a faster and more precise work schedule for machines – including estimated machines occupancy in hours/ days /weeks. You can optimally utilise your machines and deliver your parts on time and in outstanding quality.
The MES system offers truly paperless manufacturing - instead of locating scattered papers or cluttered filing cabinets, you can invest time in developing your business.
Primary Benefits of MES system
Prodio MES software answers your industry needs:
- You can control all manufacturing processes using individual templates in a single software system, register operations, and indicate their statuses and progress to determine if the order is on time, ahead or behind schedule.
- You can access standardised and current data from the executive level to the shop floor. The MES tool makes real-time scheduling genuinely real-time. Feedback from an always-updated software system ensures an accurate overview of your company. It also enables fast responses to sudden events.
- Get a real-time view of shop floor happenings to showcase when jobs are close to completion so you can offer accurate customer updates. Workers can search for production process jobs. It also shows the next routing step and reallocation responsibilities to alert the next person in the next step for incomplete assignments.
- Optimally utilise resources and manufacture on time. Proper job scheduling is one of the most essential shop floor management activities. Display job information in real-time to let people know that the equipment isn’t operating as it should or that a cutting tool is about to fail.
- Use a drag-and-drop scheduler to fix the production queue and work with customised job cards to offer essential assignment insights.
- Scan labels and QR codes to obtain real-time inventory item levels and pick and move stock from current areas. Implement mobile scanners from shipping/receiving departments so production managers ascertain specific locations.
- Gain a streamlined recordkeeping process. Use search and reporting tools to maintain quality control and prepare audit management forms. It supports ISO9001 and procedures and allocates ready-for-inspection jobs from the quality department.
- Prevent stock-outs and lower inventory levels. Create purchase orders and upkeep inventory levels to meet project necessities. Maintain a clear history of your stock operations: track lots, stock movements, batch and serial numbers. Prepare authorised vendor lists and store supplier data (i.e., lead times and prices) to help you make better procurement decisions.
- Keep control over budget: contrast projected vs actual costs to recognise which jobs are raking in the most revenue and which ones require a price change at the quoting level.
An excellent online MES tool ensures peace of mind for those who want to operate their business from any place in the world or simply enjoy the family weekend away from the workshop. This is because workers know precisely what to do, everything is integrated and coordinated, budgets are adhered to, quality is assured, and deadlines are met. A manufacturing Execution System means improved control over every aspect of the production floor.