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Friday, August 26, 2011

Manufacturing Systems Solution – more than MES

Although I have been silent on the blog for a while I have been pretty busy working with customers and a few other things. I have been fortunate to have an article published in ISPE's Pharmaceutical Engineering titled “Manufacturing Systems Solution – more than MES” that I wanted to share (you can download it here). The article take a historical perspective at finding the right Manufacturing Systems solution, starting with the CIM wheel and on to current best practices such as GAMP and ISA-95. The article is a compilation of lessons learned and experiences from industry about Manufacturing Systems solutions and why these solutions are more than an MES. It highlights what works and what does not when considering justification, selection and design of a Manufacturing System solution with an MES at the core.

Considering the history behind Manufacturing Systems’ designs over the last three decades there should be ample fundament to design such a system. Yet the MES Domain is inherently complex and this complexity means that providing a clear and concise return on investment is challenging, given that MES typically involves a substantial capital investment. The result of this is that MES implementations are commonly surrounded with uncertainty and implementation experiences that typically are described as “painful”.

I will be co-presenting the approach described in the article at the MESA NA Conference with Roland Esquivel and Steve Soscia from Amway. We have been using this approach to craft Amway’s global Manufacturing Systems program, which has been a very interesting assignment.

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