Manufacturing Execution System Development That Connects Your Shop Floor to Every Layer of the Operation

Manufacturing execution system development is the design, engineering, integration, and ongoing support of software platforms that manage and control production on the shop floor in real time. A custom MES sits between ERP planning systems and the physical production environment — receiving work orders from ERP, dispatching them to production lines, capturing what actually happens during manufacturing, and returning production results, material movements, and quality outcomes back to ERP. The MES manages work order release and sequencing, machine and operator assignments, material issue and consumption, in-process quality checkpoints, and downtime and OEE recording. Unlike off-the-shelf MES products, a custom manufacturing execution system is engineered to the specific production workflows, machine landscape, quality inspection requirements, and ERP integration constraints of the operation rather than requiring the factory to adapt its processes to a packaged product's data model.

Off-the-shelf MES products cover standard production workflows but impose their own work order models, machine integration architectures, and quality management patterns on the operation. Manufacturing environments with non-standard routing, complex multi-variant production, unusual machine protocol requirements, deep ERP integration needs, or specific regulatory compliance workflows frequently find that packaged MES platforms require significant configuration and customisation — often approaching the cost of a bespoke platform — while still delivering a system that does not cleanly match actual production workflows. A custom MES is built around the specific production process, machine landscape, operator workflows, and ERP integration architecture, and evolves as the operation changes without dependency on a vendor's product roadmap or licensing model. For operations with established processes that a packaged product cannot cleanly represent, a custom platform built for the specific environment consistently delivers better outcomes than forcing production to conform to software.

A custom MES can manage the full scope of shop floor production execution: work order release and operation sequencing, schedule dispatch to production lines and work centres, operator assignment and task management, machine state monitoring and downtime recording, material issue at work order and operation level, in-process quality inspection checkpoints, statistical process control data capture, non-conformance triggering and hold workflows, production counting and yield recording, setup and changeover management, first-off inspection and approval gates, electronic work instructions delivery to the correct workstation, OEE calculation and reporting, and production results confirmation back to ERP. The scope of the MES is defined by the specific operational requirements discovered during the engagement rather than constrained by the modules included in a packaged product. We build what the production operation actually needs, starting from a thorough discovery of current workflows, machine connectivity, and integration requirements.

Yes. Machine connectivity is one of the most technically complex and highest-value components of a custom MES, and it is a core capability Perimattic designs and builds. We connect to machine controls using OPC-UA — the standard industrial connectivity protocol supported by modern PLCs, CNCs, and SCADA systems — as well as MQTT for IoT-based sensor and gateway architectures, and Modbus for legacy machine controls. The integration captures machine state changes (running, idle, faulted, setup), part counts and cycle times, alarm and fault codes, and process parameter readings directly from the machine controller. This data drives automatic downtime recording, OEE calculation, and production status updates without manual operator reporting. We design the machine connectivity layer for industrial reliability — handling connection loss, data buffering during network interruptions, and reconnection without losing production event data — not as a demonstration of protocol support but as a production-ready integration built to run continuously in a manufacturing environment.

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) in a custom MES is calculated from machine state data captured directly from machine controls and operator inputs — not from manual shift reports. Availability is derived from machine downtime events recorded automatically when the machine transitions from running to stopped, with downtime categorised by reason code either automatically from fault code mapping or by operator input at the HMI. Performance is calculated from actual cycle time captured per part against the standard cycle time defined in the work order or routing. Quality is derived from good parts confirmed through in-process inspection or operator count against total parts produced. The MES aggregates these three components into OEE at the machine, line, and facility level and makes the data available in real time rather than at end of shift. Downtime Pareto analysis, OEE trend reporting, and planned versus actual production comparisons are built into the reporting layer so production management and continuous improvement teams have the data they need without manual data assembly from shift logs.

Yes. ERP integration is a core component of almost every MES development engagement. The MES and ERP serve different functions — ERP manages planning, costing, and financial inventory; MES manages real-time production execution — and the integration between them is what makes the combination valuable. We design and build structured integration layers connecting the MES with SAP (PP, QM, MM modules), Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, ERPNext, and other enterprise platforms. The integration typically covers work order receipt from ERP into MES for production dispatch, production confirmation events from MES back to ERP for goods receipt and labour booking, material issue movements updating ERP inventory at point of consumption on the shop floor, quality inspection results posting to ERP quality management, and machine and downtime data feeding ERP capacity planning. We handle authentication, data mapping, error handling, and retry logic across all integration points, and we always begin with a thorough discovery of the existing ERP integration landscape and data model before designing the target architecture.

Quality management in a custom MES is embedded into the production workflow rather than managed as a separate post-production step. We design in-process inspection checkpoints at defined operations within the work order routing — so when a part reaches a quality checkpoint, the MES presents the operator with the inspection plan, measurement recording interface, and pass/fail criteria for that operation and product. Dimensional measurements, visual inspection results, functional test outcomes, and attribute checks are recorded directly in the MES at the point of production. When a measurement falls outside tolerance, the MES triggers a non-conformance automatically — placing the affected part or batch on hold, routing it to a disposition workflow, and preventing it from progressing to the next operation until QA disposition is complete. Statistical process control (SPC) charting tracks measurement trends across production runs, alerting quality teams when process capability is drifting before defects occur. Non-conformances are linked to the work order, operator, machine, material lot, and operation for root cause analysis. This architecture catches quality failures at the operation where they occur rather than at final inspection — reducing scrap, rework cost, and the risk of defective product reaching the customer.

Yes. Mixed-model production management is a common requirement in custom MES development engagements, particularly for automotive, electronics, and industrial equipment manufacturers running multiple product variants on shared lines. A custom MES manages mixed-model production by associating each work order with a specific product routing that defines the operations, cycle times, quality checkpoints, and electronic work instructions for that variant. When work orders for different product variants are dispatched to the same line, the MES presents the correct routing, instructions, and inspection criteria to the operator at each workstation for the specific unit being produced. Machine parameters and tool offsets required for each variant can be managed in the MES and pushed to CNC controllers or presented to setup operatives. Schedule sequencing logic in the MES can minimise changeover time by grouping similar variants, and OEE calculation accounts for planned changeover time between variants separately from unplanned downtime. The platform is designed around the actual variant complexity of the operation rather than around a simplified single-product model.

Material traceability in a custom MES is built around recording the specific material lots consumed at each production operation against the work order and finished product serial or lot number. When material is issued to a work order, the MES captures the material part number, lot number, quantity, and issue timestamp — linked to the work order, operation, and operator. As the work order progresses through production operations, each material consumption event is recorded. If sub-assemblies or components from previous work orders are incorporated, their serial or lot numbers are linked to the parent work order — building the genealogy tree from raw material through all intermediate assemblies to the finished product. The result is a complete forward and reverse traceability record: given a finished product serial number, the MES can identify every raw material lot and component that contributed to its production; given a suspect raw material lot, the MES can identify every finished product that contains material from that lot. This capability supports product recall isolation, regulatory compliance, customer traceability requirements, and warranty investigation without manual record searching.

We follow a structured six-stage process: a free shop floor operations discovery session to map production workflows, machine landscape, operator workflows, quality checkpoints, and ERP integration requirements; a production mapping and machine audit phase that documents current and target state, machine protocols, and integration dependencies in detail; an MES architecture and proof-of-concept phase that validates the highest-risk component — typically machine integration or ERP synchronisation — before full development investment begins; platform development and machine integration, delivering working MES modules incrementally so production teams can validate progress against real operational requirements; testing, validation, and shop floor acceptance testing against real production scenarios, machine failure modes, and quality edge cases with production teams before go-live; and production deployment with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure monitoring, alerting, and operational runbook documentation, followed by post-deployment support and engineering retainers for ongoing MES evolution. We deliver working software at each phase so you can validate progress against actual shop floor requirements throughout the engagement rather than only at the end.