Digital Transformation -- Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Enterprises. With the government advocating Industry 4.0, whether due to customer demands or the realization that manufacturing digitalization is becoming increasingly important, many small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises want to introduce a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to improve their own production efficiency and effectiveness. Production processes are complex and volatile, production plans change frequently, manufacturing procedures are complicated, and there are urgent rush orders and material shortages. Implementing iMES, or strengthening manufacturing monitoring and execution capabilities, can thereby shorten delivery lead times, reduce inventory, and increase efficiency and profits.

Currently, the manufacturing execution systems on the market target medium and large enterprises and rely on customization, which not only results in long system development cycles but also incurs huge costs. But what kind of MES system and service can actually satisfy small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises? For small and medium-sized enterprises, we hope to satisfy 80% of the core business needs of the enterprise through a single system, including production preparation, production order release, scheduling and dispatching, process maintenance, work-in-progress (WIP) tracking, quality, and machine operating parameter management, fully realizing an information system for "delivery tracking, production execution, and shop floor management."

First of all, this system must be affordable. Small and medium-sized enterprises do not have dedicated IT departments, so they require software with high maturity, simplicity, ease of use, and high cost-effectiveness. Secondly, the system functions must be simple, streamlined, and uncomplicated. These are all demands that we frequently hear from small and medium-sized enterprises. Therefore, the MES system should generate as much information content as possible with as few data collection actions as possible. Through production traceability, basic product information is obtained—such as batch number, equipment, process step, time, order number, operator, and inspector—making the production process transparent and thereby assisting production management.

For manufacturing enterprise management, regardless of whether the factory is large or small, the content of management is nothing more than manpower, machinery, materials, methods, and environment. While medium and large factories can use MES to control and standardize every detail of work, small factories, in addition to controlling key points, require more flexibility.