The market for manufacturing companies has changed dramatically over the last few years. Fast communication, high downward pressure on prices, global markets, increasingly tight demands and fluctuations in delivery quantities and due dates all call for a planning system that covers the entire supply chain. New concepts such as Supply Chain Management (SCM) are attempting to keep in line with the structural changes in the market and with the need to adapt the planning process on an on-going basis. Independently of the extent to which these concepts can be implemented today, there is growing pressure on manufacturing companies to deal with the requirements of the market and to rethink their internal planning and organisation. Amazingly, the core industrial area for creating value, i.e. manufacturing, is frequently being neglected from an IT point of view or is at best being implemented as an isolated solution. An integrated MES can help to give companies a fitness boost in the core area of manufacturing, enabli ng them to meet requirements today and in the future.
