The Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) (www.mesa.org) is the global best practice organization for the manufacturing industry globally. Members come from 82 different countries and include manufacturers/producers, solution providers and system integrators. MESA focuses on sharing standards and best practices for manufacturing execution system (MES) or manufacturing operations management (MOM) software—specifically on Level 3 of the ISA 95 standard, promulgated by the International Society of Automation.
Systems applied at this level are connected to physical shop floor processes and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The area is undergoing great change and delivering operation efficiency and quality improvements to manufacturers. In other words, a well-deployed MES or MOM platform makes money for manufacturers.
Considering that this is important technology, we realized that there was no cohesive education program. Manufacturers and producers were also asking MESA to consider offering a full MES/MOM education program. They understood the benefits but had genuine concerns about the effectiveness of their deployments without their people being properly trained and educated. But, where could they find the knowledge?
MESA acted by establishing a Global Education Committee, with Mike James from ATS International in The Netherlands chairing the committee. Charlie Gifford was appointed program manager and became responsible for content development. A team of world-renowned experts was gathered and quickly developed the content, bringing together global standards and best practices into a cohesive education program. The team comprises Mike James and Jan Snoeij in The Netherlands, Michael Hoppe in Germany, Charlie Gifford and John Jackiw in the United States and Gerhard Greef in South Africa.
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The three programs currently offered include a half-day Executive Program, two-day MESA Certificate of Awareness (CoA) for Business Awareness program, and a four-day MESA Certificate of Competency (CoC) for MES/MOM Methodologies. The contents cover the full depth and lifecycle required for a successful implementation. The executive program covers in summary format aspects of what it is, why do it, how to get ready for it, how to govern it, how to implement it and how to use it. The CoA and CoC are tested, so knowledge is confirmed and retained; it covers the same material at different levels of intensity. Details of the course curriculum are shown below.
MES/MOM Methodologies – Course Curriculum
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Relationships between Manufacturing Operations Standards and Strategic Initiatives - 3 hrs
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Global Market Advances Adaptive Manufacturing 2.0 Architecture - 3 hrs
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The Role of MES/MOM Systems in Continuous Improvement and the Collaborative Pull Supply Chain - 2 hrs
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Manufacturing Transformation Strategy: Maturity and Roadmap Modeling - 4 hrs
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MES/MOM Implementation & Governance: MES/MOM System Requirement Specifications, GAMP and Industrial System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Methods - 4 hrs
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Metric Framework for Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI): Aligning Financial and Operations Metrics - 4 hrs
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Justifying MES/MOM Systems to Business Leaders, Business Case Justification and Return on Investment (ROI) Assessment - 4 hrs
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MES/MOM Statement of Requirement (SoR), Request for Proposal and Product Evaluation Method - 4 hrs
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MES/MOM Project Management Techniques - 4 hrs
The classroom-based program is currently offered in English and German, with both scheduled and in-house events. Training is available on all populated continents via 25 scheduled events this year. Certification with the International Association for Continuing Education & Training (IACET) is almost complete, and a database of students completing the various programs will be developed. Our efforts are designed to increase understanding of MES/MOM and improve the ratio of successful deployments.
Mike James, [email protected], is chairman of MESA EMEA and Global Education Committee and Group Managing Director, ATS International BV in The Netherlands.
