Gartner defines detailed manufacturing scheduling solutions as solutions that provide capabilities to enable a company to plan and organize production activities at a detailed level. This determines the specific activities, sequences, links, resources, utilities, materials and time required to manufacture work orders. Resources such as material, machine capacity, labor and packaging are taken into account to best meet targets such as productivity, overall equipment efficiency (OEE) and service. The objective of these solutions is to synchronize material flows and resource utilization throughout the entire manufacturing floor and deliver ready-to-execute granular plans. Organizations use detailed manufacturing scheduling solutions to manage, plan, orchestrate and improve manufacturing activities that are taking place in the near future (ranging from seconds up to weeks out). These solutions deliver capabilities to make optimal use of available capacity (such as assets, tools and labor) while respecting operational constraints (such as routings, batch sizes, bill of material complexities).
Gartner defines manufacturing execution systems as a specialist class of production-oriented software that manages, monitors and synchronizes the execution of real-time physical processes involved in transforming raw materials into intermediate and/or finished goods. These systems coordinate the execution of work orders with production scheduling and enterprise-level systems like ERP, product life cycle management and quality management systems. MES applications also provide feedback on process performance, and support component and material-level traceability, genealogy and integration with process history, where required.
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software is essential for industries such as manufacturing, energy and utilities, transportation etc. to control the processes, collect & monitor real-time data, and communicate system issues. The software communicates with devices such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) to interact with industrial equipment and processes. SCADA software can be run virtually, which allows the operator to supervise the industrial processes even from a distant location. The software provides real-time data insights through Human Machine Interface (HMI) to maximize efficiency, reduce overhead costs, and streamline operations. The software also warns the operator of any hazardous conditions such as blocked processes and failing systems.