Mini-Sode 6: The Differences between MES and MOM

Gene: Okay. Let’s talk about DELMIA APRISO Now, let’s really focus in on that subject. Before we begin – since sometimes the terminology can be a little bit confusing – let’s define a common set of terms when talking about the APRISO software: MES and MOM. What exactly is the difference between an MES and an MOM and why should potential customers really know the difference?

Gene: What value they’ll get.

Mike: That’s a good question; because a lot of people use those terms interchangeably, but they really aren’t interchangeable.

Mike: MES is very focused. MES is basically for the operator on the line or at the machine to accomplish tasks whether its to complete his or her work instructions, collecting the data/traceability and possibly connecting to the equipment.

Mike: So, MES is very narrow.

Mike: Manufacturing Operations Management (aka MOM) includes what we call production, but it also includes quality because quality is inherent in the process. If you have in-line quality, you don’t want to have an operator have 2 screens to do production reporting here and quality data collection here for the same reason you don’t want to have your people on the receiving dock having to do have one screen to do receiving and then the call quality to have them come and check on the quality.

Mike: By putting the quality piece within the production piece, the warehouse piece (though I prefer to call it logistics execution) so that we can synchronize materials in real time to what’s going on the shop floor with maintenance, with time and labor and with other capabilities – like containment and sequencing and so forth.

Mike: By putting that all within a single solution (under MOM) it saves time and effort for your users because the quality guy who needs to have access to a quality system AND production data AND potentially maintenance data, that person only has to learn 1 system!

Mike: Your operator who has to follow work instructions and do operations and use tokens on the assembly line, AS WELL AS doing measurements? They only have to learn one system because it’s all on the same system!

Mike: So, MOM simplifies workflow for your users; it knocks down silos, it keeps you from having to do integration between systems on the shop floor, etc. It also simplifies things for your IT group as they have only one system to manage instead of multiple silos!

Mike: Several years ago, we had a customer who was an industrial equipment manufacturer. They had a large campus with 6 buildings. Their process was a full supply chain that would start with raw steel on 1 end and finished products out the other.  

Mike: When we came in, they were able to replace 60 (that’s 6-0) point solutions on all of their various shop floors with DELMIA APRISO. They told us that saved them about 3 million a year in maintenance integration and all those other costs!

Mike: Having MOM as a single solution is really powerful because so much of your manufacturing processes don’t exist in just 1 silo! Rather than having to cross multiple silos and integrate multiple systems, you put it all under a single platform-based solution where you’ve got the flexibility to configure the processes that you need and cross the necessary boundaries.

Mike: That’s the beauty of the MOM platform over an MES – especially within the Dassault software suite; manufacturing has a lot of different systems to learn and integrate.

Mike: But – within our solution – there aren’t any boundaries at all.

Gene: Since you’ve been so concise in your definitions up to this point, can you define what exactly that the DELMIA suite does and then focus in on what APRISO does within that suite?

Mike: That’s a complicated question; the DELMIA brand is probably one of the broadest brands in the whole Dassault portfolio!

Mike: DELMIA is complex because its got what we call the digital manufacturing piece (which you can do your process planning), defines all your resources on your shop floor, defines all your tooling, etc.

Mike: It’s also where you can also do things like robotic simulation, ergonomics for human simulation, 3D printing simulation, and so on. DELMIA has all of the planning and set up for any part of the manufacturing process (aka the digital manufacturing piece)

Mike: We also have supply chain and planning; so, production planning, master scheduling long-term sales and operations planning, etc.

Mike: We have an Augmented Reality and virtual reality capabilities; we also have a collaboration tool called 3D Lean that enables you to do things like your morning 5 minute stand up meetings, do them electronically, digitally, etc.

Mike: I can spend some time on that, but in the interest of time, I won’t today.

Mike: And then, the DELMIA APRISO piece is the actual execution MES/MOM piece. This is where, like I said, we can do anything from production to quality to warehousing and logistics to maintenance to time and labor; we can support all of that within a sequenced environment; we can collect all of the quality data from the shop floor, and so on.

Mike: But that MOM piece is really the shop floor component that does anything inside your four manufacturing walls- in terms of executing/building your process but also ensuring you’ve got all the materials, tooling and capabilities to build that.