Description
Project is needed to develop an advanced Enterprise Information System (MES II) to control and improve production processes in small and medium sized enterprises. Today, the greatest weakness of existing MES systems is that they are not attractive and affordable for small and medium-sized enterprises due to their long implementation time and unnecessary features. This project aims to develop a specially designed MES system for small and medium sized manufacturing companies with the components and functional modules that can be used by various industries that covers all production processes or only certain parts of it. It’s intended to be flexible and deployable in parts, with the standard functionalities (product definitions, stock management, human resources, orders management, production scheduling, production management, analysis module, integration module and back-end administration). Project is implemented with donor partner, who participates in in-depth analysis and testing activities of the product and contribute through experience-sharing, consultancy and know-how.
Summary of project results
The main aim of the project was to develop a manufacturing execution system that would be easy to use - with shorter deployment period, lower costs and more flexible functionality. Manufacturing execution systems are IT systems that help manufacturers to optimise production activities from order launch to finished goods. Even though prior to the current project such systems were used, there were several bottlenecks that had to be dealt with: • Implementing manufacturing execution systems is difficult, as the different solution providers have different functionalities difficult to integrate. Thus it is challenging to take the system into use and integrate with other information systems being used. • Majority of the solutions contained functionalities that the enterprises actually do not need to use, however adding additional modules is very complicated and takes a lot of time. • The solutions available in the market were dependent on certain hardware and software vendors. Due to the difficulties concerning the use of aged technology, integrating the system with other systems used, high implementation costs and long deployment period, it is unreachable even for some large companies to implement a suitable manufacturing execution system. As a result of the project an innovative manufacturing execution system was developed. The new system was targeted to small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and was easier and quicker to implement. The system was developed in collaboration with different enterprises in order to ensure accordance to the needs of the enterprises. As a result of the project, the following benefits occurred for the enterprises implementing the new system: • time savings - as a result of decrease in paper document administration, better-planned logistics, shortened production process, less work interruptions the processes of the enterprises are more efficient and beneficial. • staff is being used more effectively - planning and using of workforce is optimised as it is easier to plan the need for labor and thus achieve optimal number of employees. • cost savings from production inputs - it is easier for the company to plan and use labor, raw materials, electricity, fuel, etc needed for the production.
Summary of bilateral results
The project partner was a Norwegian company whose main role was to participate in in-depth analysis of the product and contribute through experience sharing, consultancy and know-how about the needs of future users of the system in Norwegian market. As a result of the bilateral collaboration it was possible to develop the solution suitable for several economic environments and different enterprises. In collaboration with the Norwegian partner knowledge exchange was constant, as for both partners it was useful to work together with a company who knows the peculiarities of the certain market.