MESA

MESA (Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association) International is a global community of

manufacturers, producers, industry leaders, and solution providers who are focused on driving
business results from manufacturing information.
One of the ways that MESA contributes to improving both business results and production operations
is by creating guidebooks and original research. Most of these materials focus on business strategies,
best practice processes to achieve those strategic objectives, and the use of enterprise solutions to
support processes, measure and accelerate business success. Where MESA's research differs is that
it reaches from enterprise concepts down to the real-time production process. This is reflected in
the MESA Model.
The MESA Model is one of the areas included in MESA's Global Educational Program - in the
Methodologies CoC program on MES/MOM Models and Standards and in the executives' Business
Function CoA program on strategic relationships.
MESA has ongoing programs that focus on enhancing understanding of concepts and practical
approaches to realizing business and operational benefits. Primary programs include the five MESA
Strategic Initiatives that form the top layer of the MESA Model:
Asset performance management (APM)
Lean manufacturing
Quality and regulatory compliance
Product lifecycle management (PLM)
Real-time enterprise

MESA has developed educational materials on the five strategic initiatives shown here. See more
about the strategic initiatives.
MESA has conducted primary research studies that illuminate critical aspects of success for
manufacturing and production companies. The main area MESA conducted research in is Metrics
that Matter, or performance metrics for manufacturing and production businesses and
operations. More about Metrics that Matter.

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 realtime 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 c-MES 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)