Rockwell study Manufacturers struggle to scale MES across multiple sites

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MES adoption is widespread, but many manufacturers still struggle to extend the technology consistently across multiple sites. A Rockwell Automation report identifies system integration, underused production data, cybersecurity risks and limited AI readiness as the main barriers to enterprise-wide deployment.

Industrial automation specialist Rockwell Automation released “Scaling MES Across the Enterprise”, an industry insights report based on input from 1,560 manufacturing and industrial operations decision makers across 17 countries. The research finds that despite widespread manufacturing execution system (MES) adoption, scaling it across the enterprise has become the defining challenge for manufacturers seeking to drive performance, integration and long-term value.

Most manufacturers have MES running in at least one facility. However, far fewer have made it work consistently across all sites, due to contributing factors such as disconnected systems, underutilized data and rising operational risk, all of which are limiting the value manufacturers can extract from the investments they have already made.

Key findings from the report include:

• MES adoption is widespread, but scale is lagging: 93 percent of manufacturers have MES in place, yet only 28 percent have deployed it enterprise-wide and just 23 percent report full integration across Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), quality and operational technology (OT) systems.

• Integration is the top priority — and the top obstacle: 44 percent of manufacturers rank integration as their top MES buying requirement. It also ranks as the leading modernization challenge, with 33 percent citing MES as their biggest data integration problem.

• AI ambition is outpacing operational readiness: Manufacturers expect 42 percent of processes to be AI-supported within the next year and 54 percent by 2030. Yet 43 percent acknowledge they are not effectively using their collected data — the foundation AI requires to perform.

• Resilience is now a buying requirement: 46 percent of manufacturers experienced a cyber incident in the past year. Security and compliance now rank as the second-highest MES buying requirement, cited by 43 percent of respondents.

“MES adoption is no longer the hurdle, but enterprise scale is,” said Anthony Murphy, vice president of product management, Rockwell Automation. “Manufacturers may have checked the box by making initial investments in MES technology, but many struggle to gain full value across the enterprise. The impact of a MES has also changed — it's shifted from production tracking to providing insights across a company's full operations, like quality management, worker productivity and supply chain forecasting. Additionally, when connectivity is actualized, there are more opportunities to leverage AI technology.”

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