Manufacturing execution systems for micro-manufacturing

Today, it is vitally unthinkable to operate state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities without a variety of IT systems supporting production. Several classes of IT systems can be found over the different layers of these facilities - from enterprise resource planning systems as an example on the enterprise management layer down to programmable logic controller-based applications on the manufacturing processes layer. The term MES usually refers to a collection of integrated software applications that is located between those two layers - on the manufacturing operations and control layer. On the one hand the MES ensures the right level of information transfer between upper and lower layers and thereby supports the integration of processes on the shop floor into the overall business process framework. On the other hand the MES provides a rich set of functionalities to optimize operations on the shop floor in different dimensions, such as product quality, resource utilization and the adherence to delivery dates. Based on an overview presentation of the production IT environment the chapter discusses the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) layer in detail. Furthermore, it reviews the needs for standards related to the MES environment and discusses selected standard frameworks.