MESA Model

As an educational association, MESA provides models that help those from a variety of levels and
disciplines within the manufacturing and production enterprise to converge on common views of
what they need to accomplish and how enterprise solutions can assist. The objective is to provide a
platform for mutual understanding and planning for increased performance.
To this end, MESA has developed several models over the years. The current model, developed in
2008, spans from enterprise-level strategic initiatives to business operations to plant operations and
actual production. It shows the interrelationships between strategies, enterprise-level operations,
and plant operations. Objectives cascade down, and results are reported up against those
objectives. It also provides a conceptual illustration of how events in the plant operation feed and
inform all other events, and how aggregate views from the enterprise can drill down through
operations to the real-time production views.

Previous versions of the MESA model focused exclusively on operations (as did the organization
itself at the time). The Collaborative MES or C-MES model from 2004, focused on how core
operations activities interact with business operations in a model that represented issues such as
increased competition, outsourcing, supply chain optimization, and asset optimization. Inside the cMES box, the model depicts functions typically found in the integrated MES product offerings at that
time. The c-MES world then interfaces to the other business operations areas around the edges.

MESA White Paper #8 outlines the objectives of this model: "What characterizes Collaborative
Manufacturing Execution Systems (c-MES)? These systems combine earlier generation MES
functionality to operate and improve plant operations and add better ability to integrate with other
systems and people in the enterprise and value chain/stream. Although some of this data has been
shared through traditional communications, the Internet and web-based technologies such as XML
and web services provide a significant leap in accuracy and timeliness of communications."
Prior to that, the original "MESA-11" model was published in 1997. This model indicated 11 core
functions of a manufacturing execution system, again with relationships to external enterprise
systems and functional areas. This model depicts what at the time was the MESA view of the
functions within a manufacturing execution system, including scheduling and sequencing,
maintenance, and quality.

Learn more about the MESA Model and the Evolution of the Model at the following links:

Listen to the 2010 podcast that discusses the MESA Strategic Initiatives Model
Read the 2011 MESA White Paper #39: MESA Model Evolution (for Premium MESA
Members)