Enterprise Resource Planning
The most important part of any Enterprise Resource Planner (ERP) is how seamlessly it integrates with other business operations. Your ERP isn’t saving you much money if all the data is entered and communicated manually.
Continu8’s goal for ERPs is to make sure they are used properly and integrated with other operations to their fullest ability. A well-implemented ERP will save labor from unnecessary typing, printing, walking and talking, resulting in more productive employees making fewer mistakes.
ERP vs MES
ERP systems are “data-driven”, in other words an ERP system responds to the data being input. By contrast, MES is event-drive, or data is created in response to events. User intervention in an MES is typically limited to the recording or approving of an event – labor entry on a job or assigning a reason for machine downtime. This keeps MES interfaces very simple and often only requires handheld computers or tables for all user functions.
An MES will receive orders from ERP and deliver them to shop floor interfaces (PCs, PLCs, HMI, DNC). As work is performed the events triggered by labor entry, bar code/RFID movements and/or HMI/SCADA systems are captured by the MES to be recorded and reported back to the ERP, Executive Dashboards or even customer portals. MES provides a clear view of what is happening, where it is happening and with proper configuration even why it is happening.
