Who owns MES? Who cares, just communicate

The age old question reared its ugly head once again: Who should support MES, IT or Engineering?
A fellow at consulting company Ordina, Bianca Scholten asked that question during her talk at the 15th annual WBF Conference in King of Prussia, Penn.
Not being one to just fly by the seat of her pants, Scholten conducted a “small unscientific survey” among some of her customers. When she asked the audience who should support MES, only one or two in the audience voted for IT, and the rest voted for engineering. However, by the time she pointed out the pros and cons of both, she asked the audience again and they agreed both departments should work together to support MES.
Before anyone could give an informed answer, Scholten discussed the results of her survey. One question asked if IT and Engineering worked together. The top answer was the two departments worked together on a project basis, the second most popular answer was they worked together on a daily basis, the third most popular answer was they hardly ever worked together.
“The technical gap is getting smaller, but personality issues remain the same,” she said.
She pointed out some of the strong points of the IT side. One of the positives is the IT folks are beginning to understand the engineering side a bit more. Also, the centralization of IT has a much better overview of the entire IT picture.
On the other hand, Scholten pointed out the positives for engineers controlling MES.
“They know the process and the limitations of the process equipment,” she said. She also pointed out engineering support is very local and always available 24 hours a day.
She also raised the question if the two areas should merge into one.
“There is not a lot of information out there about what to do. Actually, there is no information,” she said. “There is no proof that one way or the other is better to merge engineering and IT together, or have them work together on a project basis.”
“One way or the other, it is all about good communication,” Scholten said. “Communication is very important when it comes to MES projects.”