This impact brief focuses on the benefit of MES integrated into the enterprise project reporting and accounting systems, particularly as it relates to managing engineering changes, project specification changes, changeovers and transitions.

1. A Better Way to Manage
Change and Transitions
Iyno in Project Manufacturing
Advisors
By Jeffrey Hill and Julie Fraser, Iyno Advisors
Project manufacturing presents unique challenges and opportunities for managing
production changes or transitions. In operations, these can come about as production shifts
from one product to another, or as a product changes, or even as triage occurs in
maintenance, repair and operations (MRO). Production is not the only tricky part of the
change process; the accounting, materials management, and reporting are equally
important. They all need information flows between them to stay in lock step.
Thus, managing transitions relies on having a capable Manufacturing Execution System
(MES) in the plant that can integrate with business systems. An ideal system would
enhance the management of all phases of the manufacturing process, provide the ability to
track design changes and changeovers down to the project and component level, and allow
detailed and timely manufacturing information to be integrated with financial and business
resource planning to drive better decisions throughout the organization.
Business Context
The MESA International research study report Pursuit of Performance Excellence shows that
manufacturers who use MES systems are far more likely to have achieved a 10% reduction
in the time to transition from one product to another (Figure 1). The same study shows
users of MES are also more likely to increase the average contribution margin for each unit
made, a major component of
manufacturing profitability, by
Time to make 10% or more per year. Simply
changeovers or put, companies that manage
transitions MES /
their production process using
improved >10% MOM
User MES have tighter control over
per year
production changes and costs.
Average unit Other They can act more quickly to
contribution
satisfy transition needs too.
margin
improved >10%
Transitions are a critical aspect
per year
for any project-based
0% 50% 100% 150% manufacturer to succeed.
Average of Responses Typically projects have many
changes from design, customer
Source: Pursuit of Performance Excellence or material shifts. Moving
© 2012 MESA International and Cambashi Inc.
between multiple projects is
Figure 1: MES users are far more likely than others to also quite challenging.
improve more than 10% on both production and business
metrics.
© 2012 Iyno Advisors www.iyno.com

2. A Better Way to Manage Change and Transitions in Project Manufacturing
There are many issues to consider. These may include:
 Revisions to designs over a forty or fifty year production lifetime in aviation.
 Each production run is essentially a custom project requiring new manufacturing
tools and methods.
 Project visibility, progress reporting, and accountability for government contracts,
with audits and accountability across owned and subcontracted operations
 MRO operations where initial operations steps dictate quick action in all subsequent
steps.
The common element among these environments is the need to control costs, improve
processes, and maintain or enhance quality to differentiate in a highly competitive
environment. Companies need production information to thrive, and the system to provide
that is MES.
Key Benefits of MES
Some of the benefits of using MES integrated with ERP include:
 Enhancing flow of work by making routings and work instructions available online for
production, quality and maintenance personnel
 Handling transitions through always up-to-date job materials and checking for
certifications and training of operators and technicians
 Enforcing streamlined production processes to support lean and continuous
improvement efforts
 Eliminating reliance on paper documents on the plant floor
 Improving predictability by with standardized approaches to all phases
 Making current status of a complex production run visible to production and business
managers at any time.
 Increasing control and transparency through integrating production operations with
accounting, purchasing, inventory control, billing and cost and expense allocation.
 Increasing availability of performance metrics supports continuous process
improvement by supplying production and business managers with both an historical
and current view of production projects.
MES is known for providing a platform to increase the overall efficiency of production
operations. It also provides the capabilities and the tools needed to manage the rapid
transitions common to project manufacturing. Integrated with project-oriented business
systems, it can catapult performance in transitions and the business to new levels.
Iyno Advisors
Iyno Advisors combines experience, intuition, intellect, and research to focuses on how manufacturing and production companies
and their network of partners can best benefit from software applications and services. www.iyno.com 508.362.3480
The Sponsor: Deltek
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© 2012 Iyno Advisors 2 www.iyno.com