Manufacturing Execution Systems and Industry 4.0

After business processes were integrated horizontally by ERP systems in recent decades and then vertically by other systems (such as SCM, CRM, PLM, SRM), the digitization of manufacturing has once again become the focus of attention in recent years as part of verticalization. In the German-language terminology, the buzzword “Industry 4.0” in particular has become established, in which “intelligent machines” independently coordinate manufacturing processes or “service robots” support people in assembly, for example (BMWI (2017) Dossier Industry 4.0: Digitale Transformation in der Industrie, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Dossier/industrie-40.html/ . Accessed on 04.12.2017). The aim of this automation is in particular individual products, i.e. one-offs, at a price and quality comparable to mass production. The bridge from the ERPEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systemsSystems to these “intelligent machines” is built by “Manufacturing Execution SystemsSystems” (ME systemsSystems, production controlProduction control systemsSystems), which can be available in various forms, from individually created single systemsSystems, for example solely for production data acquisition or solely for the quality management of specific processes of a company, to standardized and integrated overall solutions. In this chapter, the functionality of ME systemsSystems is presented and differentiated from the functionalities of surrounding systemsSystems. As a concrete example, processes within the “SAP University Alliance Industry 4.0Industry 4.0” landscape will be considered in particular; this landscape is made available to colleges and universities via the SAP Academic Alliance.