Plant wide optimization by applying MES

摘要

After China's accession to the World Trade Organization, China's Iron & Steel Industry is facing the challenge of more flexible production, higher demands on product quality and competitive cost position. These goals can only be reached by investing in cost-effective production processes, using state-of-the-art technologies. Individual processes have already been automated and optimized so far, that there is only little room left for improvement. The ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are limited with regard to general production planning. The knowledge of the actual plant status and the technological constraints of the production process are not available in an ERP system. Therefore modern plants need new technologies as important part of enterprise IT which are able to link the various individual processes to form an optimum process chain and connect the automation- and the process-level with the management level. According to the definition of MESA (Manufacturing Execution System Association) MES deliver information that enables the optimization of production activities from order launch to finished goods. This report describes in detail the different technological functions of MES for Metal industry and typical system architecture. By analyzing of a real MES with highly sophisticated functions benefits for the plant owner are illustrated.