Logica

MES Product Survey 2009

October 5, 2009, the tenth edition of Logica's MES Product Survey has been published. Now the report comprises information about 58 MES products from 55 vendors.

Some findings of the 2009 survey:

• As in the past ten years, last year again MES vendors and products disappeared from the market in North America and Europe because of mergers, acquisitions and even some bankruptcies. In other regions in the world the number MES vendors and products is still increasing.
• The trend of vendors (not all) tightening their focus is persisting. Less products are positioned as "one size fits all". Customers selecting niche products get "best practice" for that niche with accelerated implementations, accepting the constraints of a focused product.
• Over the last eight years, the support for Product Tracking & Genealogy, and Performance Analysis increased significantly. Compared to the other manufacturing/ production operations, Labor Management and Document Control still are supported less. In many cases, specific best-of-breed products are chosen to support these functions.
• The workplace of operators and other MES users are decreasingly fixed. Therefore mobile solutions are becoming increasingly important. The majority of products are offering extended mobile capabilities.
• The application of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in (parts of) the vendors solutions increased from 46% in 2007 to 79% now. However, to be able to make use of SOA successfully, everyone involved should apply the same standards and definitions in an unambiguous way.

In summary, MES Buyers now have more choice, and can be more selective, more focused and have greater chance of implementing on their choice of technology platforms. The first challenge is to find an effective way to sort through the long list of products as potential solutions. This MES Product Survey report is intended to help them to accelerate this step.