In the process of manufacturing informatization, shop floor-level informatization is a weak link. Developing MES technology is an effective way to improve the level of shop floor automation. MES emphasizes shop floor-level process integration, control, and monitoring, as well as the rational allocation and organization of all resources to meet the needs of shop floor informatization, improve the shop floor's ability to respond quickly to and handle random events, and powerfully promote the extension of enterprise informatization to the shop floor level. By building a shop floor management system characterized by "lean production and intelligent manufacturing," a digital shop floor is established, thereby realizing lean production and intelligent manufacturing.
MES architecture
A digital workshop integrates information, networks, automation, modern management, and manufacturing technologies to form a digital manufacturing platform within the workshop. This improves all aspects of workshop management and production, thereby achieving agile manufacturing. Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is the core of a digital workshop. Through digital production process control and leveraging automation and intelligent technologies, MES achieves intelligent manufacturing control, transparent production processes, numerically controlled manufacturing equipment, and integrated production information. The workshop MES mainly includes a workshop management system, a quality management system, a resource management system, and a data acquisition and analysis system, implemented through a technology platform layer, a network layer, and an equipment layer.
MES execution system composition
MES (Manufacturing Execution System) consists of functional modules such as shop floor resource management, production task management, shop floor planning and scheduling management, production process management, quality process management, material tracking management, shop floor monitoring management, and statistical analysis, covering aspects of manufacturing site management. MES is a customizable manufacturing management system; different companies' process flows and management needs can be met through on-site definition.
——1. Workshop Resource Management——
Shop floor resources are the foundation of shop floor manufacturing and the basis for MES operation. Shop floor resource management mainly manages shop floor personnel, equipment, tooling, materials, and working hours to ensure normal production and provide historical records and real-time status information of resource usage.
——2. Production Task Management——
Production task management includes functions such as production task reception and management, task progress display, and task query. It provides information on all projects, allows users to query specific projects, and displays the entire production cycle and completion status of each project. It offers production progress display, showing tasks for the current day, week, and month by day, week, and month, and using color to distinguish the stage of each task, enabling real-time tracking of project tasks.
—3. Workshop Planning and Production Scheduling Management—
Production planning is both a key focus and a challenge in workshop production management. Improving the efficiency of planners in scheduling and the accuracy of production plans are important means to optimize production processes and improve production management.
The workshop receives the master production plan and, based on the current production status (capacity, production preparation, and work-in-process, etc.), production preparation conditions (drawings, tooling, and materials, etc.), as well as the project priority and planned completion time requirements, rationally formulates production and processing plans and monitors production progress and execution status.
Advanced Production Scheduling (APS) tools combine real-time shop floor resource load and existing plan execution progress to generate optimized and detailed production schedules after capacity balancing. It fully considers the processing capacity of each machine and adjusts it in real time based on actual site conditions. After automatic scheduling is completed, plan evaluation and manual adjustments are performed. In small-batch, multi-variety, and multi-process production environments, APS tools can quickly handle complex situations involving urgent order insertions.
——4. Production Process Management——
Production process management enables closed-loop, visualized control of the production process to reduce waste such as waiting time, inventory, and overproduction. Multiple methods, including barcodes, touchscreens, and machine tool data acquisition, are used to track planned production progress in real time. Production process management aims to control production, implement and execute production scheduling, track the status of workpieces and tasks in the workshop, and outsource processes that cannot be processed at present. It provides management functions such as process assignment, outsourcing, and kitting, and displays real-time workshop information and task progress through dashboards.
——5. Quality Process Management——
Process inspection and product quality management in the manufacturing process enables traceability of process inspection and product quality, and strict control over non-conforming products and rectification processes. Its functions include: comprehensive recording of key elements in the production process and complete quality traceability; accurate calculation of product pass and fail rates, providing quantitative indicators for quality improvement; and preventative maintenance of products leaving the factory based on product quality analysis results.
——6. Production Monitoring and Management——
Production monitoring enables multi-dimensional monitoring of the production process, including production schedule and equipment operation. It manages workshop alarm information, including alarms for equipment failures, staff absences, quality issues, and other reasons, allowing for timely problem detection, reporting, and resolution to ensure smooth and controlled production. It integrates with distributed digital control (DNC) and partial data collection (MDC) systems for equipment networking and data acquisition. This achieves equipment monitoring and improves the utilization rate of bottleneck equipment.
——7. Material Tracking Management——
Barcode technology is used to manage and track logistics during the production process. Materials are tracked online via barcode scanning during production, monitoring their flow and ensuring rapid and efficient movement within the workshop. This data can also be queried at any time.
——8. Inventory Management——
Warehouse management covers all inventory materials within the workshop. These materials include self-made parts, outsourced parts, purchased parts, cutting tools, fixtures, and circulating raw materials. Its functions include: retrieving stored materials through inventory management, querying current inventory status and historical records; providing inventory counting and warehouse transfer functions, setting alarms for insufficient inventory of raw materials, cutting tools, and fixtures; and providing inbound and outbound operations for warehouse parts, including borrowing, returning, reporting for repair, and scrapping of cutting tools/fixtures.
——9. Statistical Analysis——
The system can perform statistical queries on data generated during the production process, analyze the data, and generate reports to provide reference data and decision support for subsequent work. The production process generates a wealth of data, and the system can be customized with different statistical query functions as needed, including: product processing progress query; workshop work-in-process query; workshop and workstation task query; product matching and completeness query; quality statistical analysis; workshop capacity (manpower and equipment) utilization rate analysis; scrap rate/defect rate statistical analysis, etc.
Relationship between MES and other digital systems
By integrating MES, ERP, PDM/CAPP, and DNC/MDC systems, we can achieve full sharing and effective utilization of data from multiple levels, including design/process, management, and manufacturing.
1. The ERP system uses information obtained from the PDM/CAPP system to develop the master production schedule. The master production schedule is then transmitted to the MES for shop floor scheduling and production preparation. Material-related information is transmitted to the digital automated warehouse to guide warehouse management. Storage information of materials in the digital automated warehouse, along with financial information, is fed back to the ERP system to guide procurement and financial management.
2. After obtaining the master production schedule and production preparation information such as materials, supply, procurement, and inventory from the ERP system, the MES performs workshop production planning and scheduling, and issues production tasks to the DNC system for CNC machining, and issues inspection tasks to the quality system for quality tracking. Simultaneously, the MES obtains information on task execution, processing, materials, working hours, equipment, tooling, and personnel during the production process through the data acquisition system, for production process monitoring and workshop event handling.
3. The QMS obtains information on materials, structure, process, tools, and equipment from the CAPP system, and production plans from the ERP system. The obtained quality records, reports, and correction information are fed back to PDM/CAPP/MES to guide subsequent quality management processes. Digital inspection and measuring instruments are used to monitor and analyze the inspection information for quality control.
4. The data acquisition and analysis system utilizes the machine tool networking automatic acquisition function provided by the DNC system and manual acquisition methods such as touch screens and barcode scanners to collect workshop data. This data is transmitted to the MES system for production monitoring, while quality-related information is transmitted to the QMS for quality tracking, problem handling, and statistical analysis.
Network- and information-based manufacturing technologies represent one of the future directions for advanced manufacturing technology development. Digital workshops, with MES (Manufacturing Execution System) at their core, utilize computer hardware, software, and network environments to achieve digital manufacturing of products. This can improve manufacturing capabilities, shorten product manufacturing cycles, reduce manufacturing costs, and ultimately enhance enterprise competitiveness.
