Systems provide the key to flexibility

British food and drink manufacturers are failing to take advantage of the operational efficiency improvements offered by adopting Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), unlike their counterparts on the Continent and elsewhere, claims IT systems supplier Siemens Automation & Drives.

However, things could be set to change as manufacturers here endeavour to meet traceability requirements under new regulations that come into force next year.

MES take-up could also be boosted by the closer working relationships developing between manufacturers and their retail customers which increasingly expect their suppliers to meet fluctuations in consumer demand.

While targeting the dairy sector in particular, Siemens, which has MES with customers such as Kraft, Danone and Unilever on the Continent, expects its first order for a Simatic IT suite of software from a UK brewer within the next six months.

Simon Lawson, representing Siemens systems integrator Capula, points to benefits of MES. "MES can improve efficiency and optimise plant," he says. "It can affect the bottom line as well as giving traceability."

While more and more people are criticising enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for failing to meet the expectations placed on them, MES -- which sit between higher level ERP information systems and plant level control systems -- can give measurable benefits within months of implementation, claims Lawson.

ERP will only tell you what you have in stock, he says, however MES operate in real-time and allow you to juggle supply and demand: "MES acts like a shock absorber that allows you to react very quickly to customers," says Lawson. "It gives agility with smaller batch sizes."

Matthew Holland, from Siemens' MES Industrial and Control & Automation Division, agrees. "ERP does not have a major impact on manufacturing," he claims. "MES does have an effect directly."

Holland says that the failure to implement systems in the past could in part be down to people's lack of understanding of MES.

But, following the introduction of an internationally emerging standard (Instrument Society of America (ISA) standard S95) last year, this has changed, he says. ISA S95 details what MES does down at plant level, by focusing on key issues such as maintenance, inventory, quality and production.

This enables manufacturers to answer questions such as ?how can I have high quality without affecting our costs', claims Holland.

He is sceptical of the claims made by many manufacturers that they already have adequate traceability systems and points to the frequently long delays when products are recalled. "These suppliers have no idea about tracking and traceability, even when they think they do," he claims. "The food industry is too reactive."