IIoT: One of THOSE Moments.

An MBA told me today that “MES s going to die under Industry40“.

I told him to ask for the cost of his MBA back!

MES provides orchestration to ensure that the IIoT local edge intelligence optimizes rather than sub-optimizes business performance. I told him I could list 10 other reasons why MES matters in facilitating and maintaining Industry 4.0 but as he was paid more than me to know more than me I was sure he knew them already. IIoT is not equipped to drive toward the business objective. The objective is responsiveness, and that means the equipment or product to change its behaviour to optimise business outcomes.

This is what MES does, it ensures that IIoT data is in a context that allows people to make good operational and business decisions. I was going to ask for his opinion on PLC or SCADA’s future under IIoT, but thought better of it. Consultants need to spend time in factories actually working the entire product life cycle from CRM – ERP – MES – SCADA – HMI/PLC – WMS -Shipping.