en.Wedoany.com Reported - Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) recently released an industry insight report titled "Enterprise-Scale MES Deployment," covering 1,560 manufacturing and industrial operations decision-makers from 17 major manufacturing countries and regions. The report reveals that while Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) have been widely adopted, manufacturers still face key challenges in driving enterprise-scale deployment, which limits overall operational performance improvement and long-term value creation.
Currently, most manufacturers have deployed and are running MES in at least one manufacturing site, but only a minority have achieved stable operations across all factories. Issues such as system fragmentation, underutilized data, and rising operational risks are restricting manufacturers from extracting greater value from their existing investments.
Key findings from the report include: 93% of manufacturers have deployed MES, but only 28% have achieved enterprise-wide full deployment, and only 23% report that their MES is fully integrated with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), quality, and Operational Technology (OT) systems. 44% of manufacturers rank integration capability as the top consideration when purchasing MES, and integration is also the primary challenge in enterprise modernization; 33% of respondents consider MES their main data integration difficulty. In terms of AI applications, manufacturers expect 42% of processes to be AI-enabled within the next year, rising to 54% by 2030, but 43% of companies say they have not yet effectively utilized the data they have collected. Additionally, 46% of manufacturers experienced cybersecurity incidents in the past year, and 43% rank security and compliance as the second most important factor in MES procurement.
In practical applications, Kumi North America, a Tier 1 automotive supplier specializing in automotive interior injection-molded plastic parts and assembly units, is leveraging Rockwell's MES technology for large-scale deployment. The company began deploying the Plex system in 2008 and gradually rolled out this smart manufacturing software to its manufacturing sites across the United States and Canada, recently further introducing Plex MES Automation and Orchestration (MES A&O). Paul Andrews, Assistant Vice President of Systems at Kumi North America, stated that before adopting Plex, its operations were difficult to coordinate, with some sites lacking any software systems at all. As Kumi's business expanded, they continuously extended Plex deployment and kept applying Plex technology in new ways.
Anthony Murphy, Vice President of Product Management at Rockwell Automation, pointed out that MES adoption is no longer the main obstacle; the real challenge lies in achieving enterprise-scale application. Many manufacturers have made initial investments but still struggle to fully realize their value. The role of MES is expanding from production tracking to providing insights for overall operations such as quality management, employee efficiency, and supply chain forecasting, and system interconnection will also bring more AI application opportunities. Leveraging the flexible edge-to-cloud deployment of Plex MES, manufacturers can quickly connect various aspects of production and gradually scale up as business needs evolve.
Lorenzo Veronesi, Associate Research Director at manufacturing research firm IDC, stated that manufacturers have begun to tackle the more challenging issue of MES scaling. Integration is both the top procurement requirement and the primary challenge in modernization. If companies do not address issues such as system fragmentation and underutilized data, they will struggle to fully realize the value of MES.
