Gartner defines cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) for product-centric enterprises as a market for application technology that supports the automation of operational activities for the manufacturing, distribution, delivery and servicing of goods. Cloud ERP for product-centric enterprises is delivered under a SaaS license model (with frequent mandatory updates), where application support, infrastructure provisioning and management are the responsibility of the vendor.
Gartner defines manufacturing execution systems (MES) 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 this execution of work orders with production scheduling and enterprise-level systems like ERP and product life cycle management (PLM). MES applications also provide feedback on process performance, and support component and material-level traceability, genealogy and integration with process history, where required.
Gartner defines the market for quality management system (QMS) software as the business information management system that manages quality policies and standard operating procedures (SOPs). This may include, but is not limited to, customer requirements, quality documents, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) requirements, manufacturing capabilities, robust design, auditing procedures and protocols, nonconformance/risk management activities, testing criteria, and industry-specific regulations (for example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA] or the Federal Acquisition Regulation [FAR] requirements).
Gartner defines supply chain planning (SCP) solutions as platforms that provide technological support to enable a company to manage, link, align, collaborate and share its planning data across an extended supply chain. An SCP solution supports planning, ranging from demand planning through detailed supply-side response planning and from strategic planning through execution-level planning. It is the planning decision repository for a defined end-to-end supply chain. It is also the environment in which end-to-end-integrated supply chain decisions are managed. It establishes a single version of the truth for planning data and decisions, regardless of the underlying execution technology environment. Organizations use SCP solutions to improve their supply chain planning decisions and reach higher levels of maturity.