Manufacturing Executions Systems (MES) have existed for decades to provide both planning and control of the manufacturing process and visibility of the actual states of material, labor and equipment on the factory floor. While MES point solutions remain, more sophisticated MES systems have evolved into platforms addressing different facets of manufacturer's overall operations requirements, including planning, controlling, monitoring and assessment. These applications include routings, sequencings, labor usage data collection, scrap reporting, production variance reporting and others.

MES platforms have, and continue to provide, significant opportunities to integrate manufacturing functions while reducing wasted time, energy, and material on the factory floor. The value of MES, however, can be greatly amplified if integrated into the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) framework. PLM, with its product-centric perspective, provides an integrated framework for the different functions of create, build, support and dispose that have historically remained isolated and de-coupled.