how to buy an MES: step one - discovery

Your discovery process–the questions you ask yourself to determine what you need–should start with a more important question: why do you need a system? Are you solving a problem that’s inconvenient? One that’s costing you time and money? Or one that’s putting your business at risk?

A common (and frustrating) problem we often see is what we’ll affectionately call “the black hole”. Unlike any other issue manufacturers share with us, this one shows up again and again. It swallows up data, people and jobs. And it’s a fairly accurate description of what many shop floors experience daily.

If you send a job to the shop floor and lose visibility into where it is or when it’ll be done, you’re feeling the effects of this back hole. Manufacturers often tell us things like: 

• “I know the job’s coming out the other side.  I just don’t know when or if it will be on time.”
•  “I can’t find anything once it’s started.”
• “My sales / service team can’t answer customer questions. Once a job begins, we lose all visibility until it’s done.”

None of these frustrations are small, but they’re often not clearly defined enough to drive a quick purchase decision. That’s why it’s important to step back and understand what’s truly wrong in your production operations before you start comparing MES production system solutions.

what’s wrong with your production operations?

If you’re struggling with “black hole” visibility issues, pinpointing the root cause can be difficult. You may not even know where to start. In our experience, most problems trace back to one of three areas:

1. Equipment
2. Materials
3. Process

Let’s take a closer look at each and next week, we’ll cover specific questions to ask both your team and potential vendors to see if their system can truly help.

your production schedule

Equipment issues are often not equipment failures at all: they’re scheduling problems. One machine is overloaded while another sits idle. A job is waiting on a tool currently tied up on a different project. A gauge is out of calibration and no replacement is ready.

These scheduling breakdowns often go unnoticed at the management level, but your team knows they exist. If you ask, they’ll tell you that they load jobs the best they can, but it’s rarely in line with the schedule you set that morning. The schedule has so many moving parts that jobs getting stuck or delayed often hide in plain sight. 

Without a clear, real-time production schedule, jobs stall or pile up in hidden bottlenecks. Even the most tightly run teams can’t cover for a broken scheduling process without the right system in place. 

In this series, we’ll share some specific questions to ask a vendor to see if their scheduling tools can truly solve this (and why a simple spreadsheet or Google doc won’t). 

inventory shortages abound

Jobs also get stuck when inventory isn’t available, whether it’s raw materials, subassemblies, or kits. Managing inventory for manufacturing is a delicate balancing act. You don’t want to pre-purchase materials for jobs that might come in, but you also can’t afford to delay production once a job is confirmed. The goal is to source just in time, not too early, not too late. You want to be as responsive as you can to your customers and get jobs out the door as soon as humanly possible. 

Inventory shortages drive up costs fast. But when you need materials, you’ll do anything to get them to where they need to be. Rush orders and expedited shipping, both inbound and outbound, can erode profit or damage customer relationships. If you’re paying for it, you’re losing profit. And if you pass those costs through to your customer, it may drive away business. 

A strong MES helps you see and control inventory in real time, ensuring materials are available exactly when needed. Next week, we’ll share key questions to ask to see if a vendor’s inventory management tools can support that level of control.

process control can eliminate late orders

The backbone of your shop is your production process, and often it’s where the biggest time and money losses hide. For some manufacturers, the process varies greatly from job to job, especially in contract manufacturing. For others, the process looks the same on paper but changes in small ways every time due to unique customer requirements or requests.

An effective MES system connects every step of your process, both the common and the custom, to give you consistency, visibility, and confidence that every order is on track. When implemented well, process control alone can pay for the system. We’ll dive into this in the coming weeks.

partnering for better production

At CIMx, we work alongside manufacturers to identify critical system components and build a roadmap for success. If any of these challenges sound familiar (the black hole, scheduling, breakdowns, inventory delays, or process inconsistency), we’d love to help you uncover what’s really happening on your shop floor. 

Connect with us today or continue following our “How to Buy an MES” series to gain insights into what to ask, what to expect, and how to choose a solution that works for your business.

Takeaway: Before investing in an MES, manufacturers need to uncover the root causes of their production challenges to choose a solution that truly delivers efficiency, visibility, and growth.  Reach out and ask us how we can help

Subscribe down below to be updated as we explore this series!