No ERP Required: 3 Benefits of a Standalone MES for Job Shops

A manufacturing execution system can make a big impact on shop operations all on its own.

Across industries, business operations are growing more and more data driven—and manufacturing is no exception. Many organizations facing down the need for digital transformation think first of an ERP: an enterprise resource planner, the overarching software framework for gathering insights into your work and optimizing how you do it. 

But an ERP implementation is a heavy lift. The software touches every part of your business, and full integration can last upwards of a year—and all the while, you’re still responsible for keeping the organization running as smoothly as possible. For a job shop—high-mix, low-volume manufacturers for whom tight margins and nimble decision-making are facts of life—jumping straight to an ERP may be putting the cart before the horse.

Instead, some busy job shops might benefit more from a solution that stands up quickly, starts producing benefits right away, and even—if you decide it’s right for you down the road—lays the groundwork for ERP success. The solution? A manufacturing execution system, or MES.

Platforms like JobPack that focus on MES functionality are more lightweight and less disruptive to implement, and can cut straight to the heart of some of the toughest and most immediate problems facing smaller manufacturing shops in a way that ERPs can struggle to do. With the extra breathing room they offer, your shop can take the time you need to build a clear-eyed digital transformation strategy that’s right for your unique needs. 

Here’s what an MES like JobPack can do for you.

1. Save time on schedule management (and spend it on production insights).

Perhaps the most obvious and immediate change that an MES brings is visibility. The shop is an incredibly complex place, and any single change or status update has a dozen downstream effects on the production schedule, resource availability, shift schedule, or something else entirely. Capturing all these moving parts on a whiteboard or in an Excel spreadsheet is a full-time job all on its own. Logging all the changes in order to uncover opportunities for improvement would be virtually impossible.

An MES centralizes the monitoring and administration of your production process. Instead of operating based on stale production data, you can see the status of your machines and jobs in real time. When you make updates, your MES can automatically extrapolate the downstream changes, dramatically reducing the time spent on schedule management. This up-to-the-minute integration with the flow of work in your shop also supports detailed data collection, meaning you have not only the resources but the newly free time to analyze your workflows in depth. 

In short, the detailed data capture accomplished by an MES like JobPack lets you see exactly what is happening on your shop floor in ways you couldn’t before, and provides you with the time and tools you need to optimize it. And for smaller shops, even minor efficiency gains can have an enormous impact.

2. Thrive on changing demand.

Niche, low-volume, or highly customized products are the bread and butter of job shops—but this kind of work carries unique challenges. The wide range of clients, workflows, suppliers, outside partners, and resources each dramatically increases the opportunities for something to get lost in the shuffle. Combine that with brittle scheduling systems, and it can often be easier to just eat the losses when a job falls through—after all, rearranging your entire production schedule could take longer than the job itself. 

[scheduling interface screenshot?]

With JobPack, though, adjusting your production schedule is as easy as dragging and dropping. If you need to push a production run back a week, the streamlined visual interface makes it easy to find the best place to slot it in. And with detailed visibility into your shop’s capacity, it’s much easier to check whether you can accept that last-minute request from a scrambling customer, or find a job to fill idle time on a machine. Transparency and flexibility enable you to make the most out of the resources you have, turning unpredictable demand from a liability into an asset. (And being the hero for a desperate client never hurts, either.)

3. Open new doors with paperless manufacturing.

On their own, the efficiency and reliability gains from an MES like JobPack can be transformative. But beyond optimizing your existing operations, an MES can also position your job shop to solicit entirely new types of business. 

Some industries and clients operate under strict regulations covering traceability and documentation—like, for example, the US Department of Defense. To even have a chance at winning business from these customers, shops need to be able to demonstrate that they can monitor materials and processes at an individual level, perform quality control to exacting tolerances, and run detailed audits of previous work on demand. 

Paper-based record keeping simply isn’t up to the task. An MES, on the other hand, can automatically incorporate default tracking information and/or your own custom fields. JobPack’s paperless manufacturing module centralizes production data, serving as a single authoritative repository that shops can use for auditing, data analysis, the latest job status updates, DNC programs, and more. Paperless operations make essential communications fast, consistent, and reliable, and demonstrate to your most demanding potential clients that you can keep up with their needs. 

Customize your digital transformation with JobPack.

Modernizing your shop floor is not a one-size-fits-all process. The tools that make the biggest operational impact will vary from business to business. JobPack is the adaptable production scheduler that can target your highest-value opportunities first, ensuring that the next step is easier than the last. 

JobPack is lightweight and integration-friendly, working well with a wide range of business intelligence platforms and tools—which is to say, it can incorporate virtually any data sources available, and use them to generate highly accurate predictions and schedules. And if you do eventually decide your organization needs an ERP, JobPack will integrate smoothly with it as well, bringing along a wealth of valuable production data for your ERP to use.

Digital transformation can be a daunting process, but job shops aren’t doomed to overcommit up front. To learn more about what JobPack can offer your manufacturing business, schedule a demonstration today, or download JobPack’s manufacturing software comparison guide for an in-depth look at your options.