A manufacturing execution system sits between enterprise planning software and the machines. It receives orders, dispatches them to lines, records what was produced, by whom, from which batch of material, and reports quality results and downtime. Metrics such as OEE are typically computed here.
IoT changes what an MES can see. Where operators once typed counts into a terminal, connected PLCs and sensors feed cycle times, scrap and machine states automatically, which makes the data timelier and more trustworthy. The integration is rarely plug-and-play: machine data must be mapped to the MES’s model of products and operations, and that mapping is a large share of any smart factory project.
Part of the IoT Glossary. Spotted an error or a missing term? Tell us.