Home Successful refactoring of critical manufacturing systems

Modern MES: Successful refactoring of critical manufacturing systems during live operation

An outdated, costly MES system hindered our customer’s innovation. The challenge: a complete modernization of a critical production system without interrupting 24/7 operations. Our expertise enabled our customer to leave inflexible legacy software behind and step up to a scalable solution, allowing them to fully leverage the potential of Industry 4.0.

Cover image Successful refactoring of critical manufacturing systems

The Challenge: A lack of flexibility and high costs

Many Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) in use today are technologically outdated. As a result, they cannot map business processes from end to end. This leads to high maintenance efforts, and extending the legacy ecosystem is either limited or prohibitively expensive. Our client faced this very challenge.

Aufnahme durch Glas in einer modernen Fabrik: Weiblicher Projektleiter im Gespräch mit einem männlichen Wirtschaftsingenieur, der an einem Personal Computer arbeitet.

Monolithic architectures – not easy to adapt

A monolithic architecture made maintenance complex and costly, while obsolete programming languages and operating systems hampered development efforts. An additional obstacle was the was the limited consideration given to aspects relevant to Industry 4.0, such as connectivity and real-time data transmission. This was compounded by a lack of modern tools for simple syntax checks and source code documentation.

Graphic on technological innovation and process automation.

Evolved processes and IT landscapes

This situation was intensified by the increasing complexity of organically grown processes and IT landscapes. At our client’s facility, this legacy IT infrastructure resulted in high operating costs and hindered the agility needed to respond to market demands. Replacing the old system was unavoidable, yet 24/7 production had to be guaranteed at all times.

The Solution: An agile transition to a future-proof end-to-end solution

Our approach was to make complexity manageable by an agile and gradual transition. Instead of a high-risk, large-scale replacement, we developed a tailored transition strategy that allowed the legacy and new systems to run in parallel.

Analysis and strategy: Working closely with all stakeholders, we analyzed the current situation and used modern requirements engineering to identify the exact needs for the new system. Our transition strategy ensured that work packages were manageable and guaranteed that all departments were continuously involved and prepared for the new technologies through on-the-job training.

Architecture Design: In workshops, we identified technologies that met both functional and non-functional requirements. We then designed a future-proof edge-cloud architecture based on standard platform components and custom microservices. The database technologies, vendors, and licensing models were all tailored to their specific needs.

eine Frau und ein Mann arbeiten in einem Workshop

Agile Implementation: The legacy system was gradually replaced by new components while running in parallel. This allowed for early risk detection and guaranteed a smooth commissioning. Through close collaboration with all stakeholders, we leveraged existing knowledge and ensured company-wide acceptance of the new system.

Added value: A flexible and scalable MES

The client now a scalable, future-proof, data integration platform based on state-of-the-art, native cloud technologies. The key benefits include:

Cost-effective operation thanks to significantly reduced maintenance effort and increased system availability.
The capability to enhance the system autonomously and onboard new sites.
A central, homogeneous data foundation for data-driven decision-making.
End-to-end transparency across all business processes, which boosts quality and productivity, enables new business models, and allows for a faster response to market changes.