The manufacturing execution system (MES) market is growing, and many food manufacturers are interested in it. MES is a powerful tool that can help boost production and provide real-time visibility. However, are these the only things the MES does?
You will be surprised that MES still has much to offer. In this blog, we will explore its core features and how they help increase food manufacturing efficiency.
What Are the Key Features of a Manufacturing Execution System?
The manufacturing execution system (MES) is focused on the production line and helps manage food processes. The system does this thanks to various useful functions, from data collection to quality management. Let’s cover these aspects in more detail.
1. Real-Time Data Collection and Reporting
MES is a powerful tool for data capture and monitoring. It tracks processes, equipment, and other systems and ensures proper data exchange. You will know everything in real time and waste minimum time dealing with problems. Moreover, due to comprehensive data management, MES drives better decision-making.
2. Digitized Document Management
MES allows you to manage production-related documents crucial for regulatory compliance and food safety. MES document management means storing, handling, and making critical records accessible for the company. The documentation can include SOPs, checklists, quality documents, batch records, and more.
MES enables centralized and digitized data storage. The digital repository replaces paper-based documents and ensures that relevant team members access the documents quickly and don’t get lost in the piles of paperwork.
Version control is another positive aspect of the MES document management function. When documents are regularly edited and updated, version control helps you access the latest information, control document editions, and track revisions.
Food manufacturers often undergo audits and must comply with regulatory standards. MES enables the storage and organization of compliance records to be easily accessible to auditors.
You can manage records related to production processes and keep documentation updated and centralized. The document management feature will automate the workflow and approval procedures, enhance collaboration, and improve accuracy.
3. Food Traceability
MES helps ensure traceability by tracking raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP) goods, and finished products. This means you can monitor where the ingredients and materials come from, how they are processed, and where the ready product is distributed.
MES provides forward and backward traceability, so manufacturers can track the materials from raw to finished goods and vice versa. With MES, you can be sure that every ingredient is tracked.
MES can also track lots and batches, making it easier to identify the origin and destination of the final product. This is useful when a recall occurs and the affected batch needs to be identified and isolated.
The traceability feature helps promptly respond to recalls, isolate contaminated products, and avoid their further distribution and consumption. As a result, you reduce the damage and save customers’ health and your reputation.
4. Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance
MES helps meet food safety requirements, including HACCP, FSMA, FDA, ISO, etc. It will also make it easier to prepare for food safety audits. The system enables real-time data collection, record-keeping, monitoring, etc., which are essential for regulatory compliance.
You will benefit from automatically generated reports, which provide a detailed overview of certification processes, compliance checks, or audits. These reports ensure you can access all the documents you need.
MES records all actions during production, including quality control checks, equipment maintenance, etc., keeping a consistent and comprehensive audit trail. By recording preventive maintenance actions, MES helps maintain equipment compliance.
Corrective and preventive actions are also under MES control. Whenever an issue arises, MES incorporates an integrated CAPA system to address the incident as quickly as possible. With a manufacturing execution system, you will tackle a problem before it escalates.
Overall, MES aims to help you maintain and improve food safety compliance during production.
5. Quality Management
Quality management is vital in food production, and a manufacturing execution system helps maintain consistent product quality. MES enables data capture and regular monitoring to ensure adherence to standards and regulations, minimizing the risks of quality deviations.
MES catches nonconformances that affect the quality, including technical issues, temperature, ingredients, etc. If the system captures a problem, it notifies the stakeholders about what happened.
The system fulfills the quality management feature with the help of other functionalities, including monitoring, traceability and compliance, data capture, etc. The complex approach helps maintain the quality and avoid manufacturing a low-quality product.
6. Resource Management
Resource management enables comprehensive resource control, optimization, and allocation in production. Resources can include materials, machinery, equipment, tools, etc. It also involves time, labor, and energy.
The feature involves various components: asset allocation, production scheduling, labor assignment, reporting, downtime minimization, continuous monitoring, and quality assurance.
Efficient resource management is vital for food manufacturing. With this manufacturing execution system capability, businesses will reduce waste, optimize the processes, meet production objectives, and significantly improve product quality and business’s competitive advantage.
7. Inventory Tracking for Food Manufacturers
Accurate inventory is crucial for manufacturers, and MES provides an inventory tracking feature to optimize this production aspect.
The system enables consistent and systematic inventory control of all materials from initial stages to distribution. Moreover, the feature helps shorten processing times, minimize costs, and become more flexible in tackling inventory.
Inventory tracking with MES is possible due to comprehensive traceability, real-time visibility of raw, WIP, or finished goods, reporting and analytics, etc. It’s easier to avoid overproduction and understock, meet customer demand, and ensure food safety and compliance.
8. Performance Analysis
MES tracks essential efficiency and effectiveness parameters and analyzes metrics, such as KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) or OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). MES also helps catch bottlenecks, enabling personnel to take corrective actions to stabilize the performance.
MES historical data helps analyze past and future trends and predict future performance, significantly aiding continuous improvement. Managers can also use convenient visual dashboards for production optimization and data-driven decisions.
Overall, performance analysis is a feature that increases production efficiency, improves uptime, and drives informed decisions.
9. Dispatching Production Units
This MES functionality covers the production task scheduling and assignment to production units or workstations. This feature streamlines efficiency by ensuring correct and timely task dispatching.
The feature lets you manage work orders, schedule processes in real time, set priorities, and optimize the utilization of resources, labor, or machinery. The whole functionality is built to create efficient and timely work order management.
10. Process Management
The feature controls the whole process from start to finish. With this functionality, you will ensure that manufacturing goes smoothly and according to established recipes, standards, and procedures.
The critical aspects of process management include recipe management, workflow standardization, control and monitoring, process automation, and more. Process management ensures product quality, consistency, and safety. Moreover, established processes help eliminate human error.
11. Maintenance Management
Thanks to comprehensive monitoring and reporting capabilities, MES users can boost maintenance management operations. The system sends real-time notifications in case of equipment failure so you can swiftly react and prevent downtime.
Moreover, MES monitors and records data about the machinery’s state. As a result, you get an overview of equipment condition and decide if anything requires additional maintenance. MES also integrates with other systems, like food ERP software or CMMS software, to ensure improved data exchange and maintenance.
Integration capability is another excellent MES feature that supports the system’s functionality, making it more comprehensive and efficient. How does it work?
12. Integration Capabilities for Better Results
The MES system can work with other enterprise systems, enabling a more complex approach and seamless communication on different company levels, which is critical for the highly regulated food industry.
MES can integrate with an ERP system, streamlining order management, improving production planning, enabling real-time transparency, optimizing inventory, and more. Integrating MES+QMS can also enhance quality processes and upgrade monitoring by integrating IoT devices.
Speaking about ERP, if you are still questioning what is better, ERP or MES, our new blog can help you.
Integrations create a unified environment, making food production more efficient and eliminating blind spots that could cause downtime, errors, and financial losses.
Try it out today!
What Are the Benefits of Implementing Core MES Features?
MES features form a complex system that creates a sophisticated approach to managing production on the shop floor and supports other systems beyond. The benefits of adopting MES and its features will bring many advantages in the long run, for instance:
- Food safety compliance
- Better operational visibility
- Improved inventory tracking
- Enhanced quality
- Higher operational efficiency
- Better decision making
- Downtime reduction, etc.
There are numerous benefits of MES in food production. Industry 4.0 drives significant changes in 21st-century manufacturing, and incorporating an MES solution will bring advantages and improve business performance and food safety.
Use the MES Features To Ensure Food Safety Compliance and Efficiency
MES is a comprehensive solution that will drive production transformation in your food and beverage business. Core MES features include production management, inventory control, regulatory compliance and food safety, traceability, data management, and integration capabilities.
This is a perfect toolset for a food business that brings massive benefits worth the effort. You will see how your production expands, quality increases, and you become better at making efficient decisions.
If you are looking for MES software, FoodReady MES is here to help. Our primary focus is on food safety, along with productivity and profitability.
We offer a centralized solution to bring you the features you are looking for, and these are not just empty words. Josh Svenhard, Owner of Eurobake and our client, said: “…you can almost run your whole business through FoodReady with very minimal other input necessary”. We help companies automate and streamline their food production without extra hustle.
Fulfill and boost your business potential with MES features. Book a demo to find out more!
FAQ
MES improves quality control, food safety, document management, and other aspects crucial for FDA compliance.
MES aims to guarantee the efficient execution of manufacturing operations and production growth.
Inventory tracking and monitoring are the features that help reduce waste and maintain consistency.
The system has maintenance management features and real-time monitoring and reporting that help track machines’ performance and alert staff about potential problems.
