Brooks Automation and SAP unveil MES strategy

By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 5/24/2005

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

That might be the mantra behind the announcement last week that SAP (610-661-1000) and Brooks Software (978-262-2400) have teamed up to integrate Brooks’ FACTORYworks manufacturing execution system (MES) with SAP’s mySAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

In recent years, SAP has made significant inroads in the supply chain execution market for warehouse (WMS) and transportation management (TMS) systems. In both cases, SAP developed its own integrated solutions rather than simply buy a WMS company.

That led some to question whether SAP would take on the more challenging and complex world of manufacturing and MES. That question has now been answered. But in this case, SAP chose to develop a solution with an experienced partner rather than go head to head with leading MES vendors. In the world of high tech discrete manufacturing, Brooks is the acknowledged leader.

“SAP knows they had gaps around the shop floor, especially in the world of high tech, where operations are complex,” says Phil Walker of Brooks Software. “They also realized that to develop a solution on their own would take time.”

Going forward, relationships like the one between SAP and Brooks will be vital if manufacturers are going to move from traditional manufacturing methods towards true demand-driven manufacturing, according to Simon Jacobson and Alison Smith, analysts at AMR Research (617-542-6600).

“ERP systems require real-time production data to deliver the next level of benefit to the organization,” say the pair. Without that data, ERP systems end up guiding businesses with a set of erroneous assumptions that aren’t based on the realities of production outcomes. “MES systems provide …. visibility into manufacturing, and in turn, deliver near real-time data to the ERP system for true measurement of manufacturing performance,” they add.

In addition to developing a pre-configured, out-of-the box MES solution for high tech manufacturers, Brooks and SAP are working with a large high tech manufacturer to develop an MES application using SAP’s NetWeaver platform that will address the need for real-time, event-based scheduling on the shop floor. Once completed, the solution will give manufacturers an event-driven production schedule by linking customer orders and enterprise activities with the current events on the shop floor. It will also have the ability to respond to customers and to their supply chain dynamically throughout the day.

“In the high tech world, it’s quite common for a customer to call on very short notice and increase or decrease an order about to be manufactured by 5%,” says Walker. “This will provide an automated way to react to that order signal and make changes in real time on the manufacturing floor.”