Flexible and effective MES systems thanks to modern interface technology

However, the data collected needs to be correlated to reflect the business processes so that actions can be taken to improve them. The most important interface here is the ERP system, which manages all the resources of a company and makes them plannable. The successful integration of an MES or individual modules for production management thus depends on how well and smoothly the necessary interfaces between the systems work.

In addition to standard interfaces to common ERP and PPC (production planning and control system) systems, there are open, individually configurable interfaces that work with our software family gfos. Stand-alone or subordinated to a leading system - the data and information transfer is customized according to your requirements. In addition, existing third-party systems can be integrated to generate complete and high-quality data. All data is provided only after a system-internal plausibility check and according to freely definable criteria – e.g. per machine and workstation, per order and work process, per employee.

In addition to the integration of higher-level- and neighboring systems, i.e. ERP software or existing partial MES components, the integration of plants and machines is of crucial importance. Again, powerful standard interfaces, such as OPC UA, are used.

MES solutions usually also communicate with an ERP system. SAP provides one of the best-known solutions for this matter. However, interfaces are required for data exchange. gfos 4.8 is SAP S/4HANA certified - GFOS is one of the first MES providers with this SAP certification. This simplifies the integration of GFOS’ MES solution in SAP. Moreover, it makes it easy to record the quantity, time and status in SAP and report this information to gfos as the production data acquisition subsystem through our PDA interface to SAP.

Our customers have the option of seamlessly integrating gfos.MES into existing ERP landscapes. Master data maintenance therefore is only conducted in SAP while gfos runs autonomously in the background. All data generated in production are recorded and find their way into the various SAP modules, such as PP (Production Planning) or PM (Plant Maintenance). As a result, gfos can use and process PDA-relevant master data (these are workplaces, units of measure and causes of deviation). The actual data captured in gfos.MES | Production Data Acquisition can be taken over from the ERP and is processed further via the SAP interface. Regular updates of the order progress take place there, which means, for example, that the remaining capacity of the work centers or the automatic posting of goods receipts can be carried out easily.

GFOS as a powerful software partner

GFOS offers high-performance MES software that can be connected directly to your ERP or PPC system thanks to state-of-the-art interface technology:

• SAP is the best known and most widely used ERP system. GFOS is one of the first MES providers to be SAP S/4HANA certified (HR-PDC and PP-PDC) and has successfully implemented over 450 projects in the SAP environment.
• Baan IV, Infor ERP LN since 2006, is a professional ERP system by Infor Global Solutions.
• BRAIN International is also part of Infor Global Solutions.
• PSI is an ERP solution that has a modular structure and is extremely flexible, like gfos
• QAD MFG / PRO was an ERP system, which is now available as QAD Cloud ERP or QAD Adaptive ERP as hosting ERP on the market.
• gfos is also compatible with many other ERP systems and also has various Workforce Management interfaces.