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Rapidly implementing an MES in different sites on a global scale

By Alessandro Cereseto

Expanding into new markets is a necessity for most companies. Acquiring and being able to quickly serve a new variety of customers is an important part of a company’s strategic focus. When such projects are launched, they reach a point where the possibilities for optimization need IT infrastructure.

Often, deploying and rolling out IT in greenfield sites proves to be difficult, as companies are presented with many challenges in meeting internal standards that have been established over many years. Those include technological challenges such as privacy, cloud and streaming compliance and secure global information flows as well as organizational challenges like staff training and high capital expenses in general.

Siemens’ MES with multi-plant capabilities, Opcenter Execution, focusses on not only enabling rapid global deployment but also making it simple and less expensive.

Right choice of architecture

The key to the right approach is the choice of a suitable software architecture, such as a hub architecture. Therefore, a regional hub will be installed, from which the rollout for the other plants will be launched.

Advantages can already be observed in the operational part of implementation as less servers require maintenance and updating, and fewer licenses need to be acquired. A positive side effect is overall reduced running costs.

Flexibility as an enabler for a holistic organization

The possibility of creating a comprehensive system with integrated cloud computing offers full-time flexibility. Not only can data be used instantaneously to quickly react to different problems, but also general efficiency and overall know-how reaches new levels.

Ideas can be shared and implemented overnight. Additionally, the ability to configure and apply patches without having to synchronize production downtimes means that implementation is possible on a plant-by-plant basis without impacting the other plants, and thus production can continue as scheduled.

If you want to find out more about our MES’ multi-plant capabilities and its potentials, read the article below:


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This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/opcenter/rapidly-implementing-an-mes-in-different-sites-on-a-global-scale/