Mestec & Oracle

Manufacturing plant-floor efficiency -

Unlocking the next level of lean

oracle.com
Mestec and Oracle - Manufacturing plant-floor efficiency - Unlocking the next level of lean
Plant-floor efficiency - Unlocking the next
level of lean
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software brought about a
revolution in manufacturing efficiency. But in manual-
intensive operations, the plant-floor is still fraught with
inefficient practices that waste time and money and slow
down productivity.
With globalised competition and narrowing profit margins,
discrete and batch-process manufacturers need to widen the
application of lean principles within the plant-floor operation
itself to maintain competitive advantage and meet increased
demand for complex make-to-order items.
Plant-floors are still plagued with
inefficiency
ERP has reformed many areas of manufacturing operations,
including order management, inventory management, works
scheduling, materials planning, cost control and reporting.
However, in many manual-intensive manufacturing
organisations, vital production data held within ERP systems
is inaccessible to plant operators. At the same time, the vast
amounts of data generated on the plant-floor are managed
separately from the main ERP system, often being collected
and distributed via mountains of paper and standalone
applications such as spreadsheets.
Disconnected back-office and plant-floor
operations waste time and money
The lack of a common data management platform to manage
all plant-floor related processes causes a business-critical
disconnect. Information about production schedules and
engineering changes is often communicated slowly and
ineffectively to operators, resulting in delays and wasteful
errors. Meanwhile, data from paper forms must be collated
and re-keyed into the ERP system and spreadsheets must be
manually updated. This creates unnecessary administrative
work and leads to clerical errors. These kinds of problems
are exacerbated by the fact that managers have poor visibility
of what is happening on the plant-floor, making it difficult
to react quickly to changing conditions or to identify
potential problems.
Replacing paper and spreadsheet-based processes with a single
software application to manage plant-floor activities speeds up
cycle times. It enables engineering changes and one-off items
to be made faster; reduces unnecessary paperwork; eliminates
unnecessary costs and creates a single source of
data for reporting, analysis and auditing. Linking this
application to back-office ERP means that everyone is
working efficiently from the same data for a faster, more
streamlined manufacturing operation.
Streamline back office and plant-floor with
Oracle and Mestec
Oracle and Mestec have come together to create a total lean
manufacturing solution for manual-intensive discrete and
batch-process manufacturing organisations. The joint solution
features easy, out-of-the-box integration between Oracle
Manufacturing Applications - which are fully integrated with
Oracle’s E-Business Suite of enterprise applications - and
Mestec’s plant-floor data management solution.
Oracle provides a comprehensive suite of discrete, flow and
process manufacturing management applications as an integral
part of Oracle E-Business Suite, which also includes
applications for the entire range of ERP functions from
financial accounting to human resources, customer
relationship management and supply chain management.
Oracle offers packaged, highly configurable applications for
manufacturing organisations, allowing customers to manage
the entire product lifecycle from initial design and engineering
through work-in-process to cost and quality management.
Mestec provides a manufacturing execution system (MES),
plant-floor data management system, and ERP plant-floor
interface in one integrated solution suite. Its highly
configurable system is suited to all discrete and batch-process
manual-intensive manufacturing organisations. Mestec’s award
winning MES manages and controls the entire plant-floor
manufacturing process and all its integral activities.
The combination of Oracle and Mestec ensures a seamless
two-way data flow between the plant-floor and the rest of the
organisation. Work schedules and engineering changes flow
from Oracle to Mestec in real time, enabling even the most
complex production requirements to be carried out quickly
and efficiently. The Mestec solution, meanwhile, gathers a
wealth of plant-floor data, from batch completions to quality
information and test results, and feeds relevant information
directly into Oracle E-Business Suite for accurate and efficient
updating, reporting, auditing and analysis.
A single source of manufacturing data
The joint solution relies on one central Oracle database,
providing a “single source of truth” for both ERP and
plant-floor data. Working from a single data source, managers
and operators can access up-to-the-minute operational data,
speeding up production times and allowing problems to be
identified and addressed as soon as they arise.
 Mestec and Oracle - Manufacturing plant-floor efficiency - Unlocking the next level of lean

Product Lifecycle Project Advanced Supply Human Resources Enterprise Asset Transport Planning Business
Finance Intelligence
Management Management Chain Planning Management Management & Management & Reporting

Discrete & Flow Manufacturing

As built/
processed detail
WIP moves
Completions
Actual times
Scrap
Material consumption
Quality

Engineering Quality
Kanban Control NPI Process Material Planning Job Planning
& Fulfilment Change WIP Management Management Control & Control & Scheduling Cost Management
Management & Reporting

Sequential Work
Kanban Engineering Automatic Realtime Capture Instructions Material Trace Workstation Time & Activity
Replenishment WIP Data & Evaluation Of Capture (including Priority
Signals Change Alerts Collection Quality Data & Electronic Serial Number) Management Capture
Documents

Works Order detail

Operator Skills Rework & Schedules
Plant Device Data Input
& Certification Repairs Interfacing Validation Messaging Quantities
Validation Management Operations
Planned times
Revisions & Levels
Configurations

Mestec ‘Workstation’ - Touch-Screen and Barcode Operator Interface

Configuration
Comprehensive of Execution Plant Floor Integration Plant Floor Plant & Tool Realtime
As-Processed to Business Systems Workflow Visualisation
Database & Genealogy Environment (PDM, etc) Management Maintenance & Event Management
(Screen Layouts, etc)

The above diagram shows how Oracle E-Business and Mestec work together to create a total lean manufacturing
solution for manual-intensive organisations.

Core Oracle E-Business Suite functions are shown at the top • A second row of MES functions provide some examples
together with Oracle’s Discrete and Flow Manufacturing. of non-ERP related plant-floor functionality. These are
also provided through the Mestec touch-screen
• The red boxes below show sub-modules with a
operator interface
plant-floor relevance
• To complete the total manufacturing solution, supporting
• The corresponding and complementary Mestec MES
‘back-office’ MES functions are shown in the bottom row
functions are shown in connected white boxes
directly underneath • Examples of specific data types that are exchanged between
the systems are shown within the two large arrows

Why Oracle and Mestec?

Oracle and Mestec together bring the principles and benefits • Automatic collection and entry into the Oracle ERP system
of lean manufacturing to manual-intensive operations, of plant-floor data including WIP moves, completions,
replacing disparate, incompatible systems and “islands of actual times, scrap, materials consumption and quality
information” with a single solution for lean, efficient and
• Simple touch-screen and barcode interface for
demand-driven operations management. Particular benefits
plant-floor operators
include:
• Highly configurable solution modules for rapid
• One underlying Oracle database providing a “single source
implementation with no expensive integration work
of truth” for all operational data
or customisations
• Real-time flow of data to the plant-floor including works
• Rapid, proven return on investment
orders and engineering changes
Mestec and Oracle - Manufacturing plant-floor efficiency - Unlocking the next level of lean
Proven to Deliver Rapid Efficiency Gains and Cost Reductions
Oracle and Mestec together deliver proven and quantifiable efficiency gains, resulting in lower costs, fewer errors, better business
information and faster time to market. The combination of Oracle E-Business Suite and Mestec provides a total manufacturing
solution for discrete and batch-process manufacturers looking to increase efficiency, meet all customer demands and extend
competitive advantage.
“The combination of Lean and MES has been immensely successful.
We have seen a 35% increase in productivity, improvements in on-
time, in-full delivery, and there’s still room for more. We have up to date
information going to and from the shop floor, and that’s helping us to be
more agile. And the simplicity of the interface means it’s been excellent at
engaging people on shop floor - it has helped them to become more
responsible for their information. In conjunction with lean,
we’re shortening the information steps between customer and the shop
floor - and that makes a big difference.”
Adrian Wakefield, Business Services Director,
James Walker & Co.
“Measuring ROI will be achievable. By providing a touch-screen
interface for operators and allowing them to speed up the required ERP
transactions, we expect an ROI of less than six months. And that’s
before we have even looked at other benefits that the system will offer us.”
Peter Hall, Finance Director, James Walker & Co.
About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world’s largest enterprise software
company. Oracle’s business is information - how to manage it, use it, share
it, protect it. For nearly three decades, Oracle has provided the software and
services that let organisations get the most up-to-date and accurate
information from their business systems.
Today, Oracle is helping more organisations around the world to become
more information driven than any other vendor. For more information about
Oracle, please visit www.oracle.com.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Oracle Corporation UK Ltd, Thames Valley Park, Reading,
Berkshire RG6 1RA, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 870 553 2200
Email: uksales_ie@oracle.com
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Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
“We will achieve payback against our initial investment in the system
in months rather than years. And MES complements our lean
strategy; we have a continuous drive to reduce non value-add activities
in our organization whilst protecting stringent quality requirements and
the Mestec system does exactly that. In the future we plan to use the
Mestec system to replace older legacy systems that are currently utilised on
some of our more mature projects. Our plan is to have just one system
that will cover all our requirements as far as shopfloor information
management is concerned.”
Roy Woods, Operations Director, Thales Air Defence
“The Mestec system complements our Oracle ERP system. It extends
the footprint of our enterprise systems to address the very granular and
data-intensive plant-floor processes. It automates all the necessary ERP
transactions to support our costing system too. By managing all our plant
data electronically, we save the burden of having to manage to manually
manage all this plant-centric data. So the business case to roll-out the
system is very strong.”
Paul Tomlinson, Operations Director,
Thales Missile Electronics
About Mestec
Mestec provides the best manufacturing execution system (MES),
plant-floor data management system, shop-floor data collection system
(SFDC) and ERP works order execution system in one integrated
solution suite. Mestec’s highly configurable system is suited to all
discrete and batch-process manufacturing sectors.
Implementations are focused exclusively on the delivery of tangible
business value. Through smart and efficient data and process
management, together with the elimination of effort that does not add
value, ROI periods of 3 to 12 months can be expected. With decades of
experience with hundreds of manufacturing organisations, Mestec
understands the causes of operational ‘profit erosion’. Mestec can
quantify these through a value opportunity audit which will allow the
customer to understand and evaluate the exact size of the improvement
opportunity. Mestec will work with the customer to exploit their
operational potential.
Mestec provides end-to-end implementation, support and integration of
its MES system into existing software infrastructures. The Mestec system
is currently used by a number of global manufacturing sector leaders.
Tel: +44 (0) 1494 834600
Email: sales@mestec.co.uk
Web: www.mestec.co.uk