Modernization Strategy
MES Selection and Implementation Oversight
The right MES for your plant, chosen on your requirements and your data, and delivered to the scope you bought.
An MES selection is a requirements problem dressed up as a software purchase. Joltek provides independent MES selection consulting and implementation oversight for manufacturers: we build the requirements from the plant floor up, decide with you whether to buy, build or extend what you already run, run a vendor-neutral selection on your own data and then hold the implementation to the scope you chose.
Proof. An MES has to serve the plant floor, so the requirements have to come from people who have run one. Before founding Joltek, Vladimir Romanov delivered capital projects at Procter & Gamble, led maintenance and operations in high-throughput food manufacturing at Kraft Heinz, and ran a greenfield expansion at Post Holdings. That is the plant floor an MES has to serve, seen from the delivery side and the support side. And because Joltek resells nothing, the recommendation has no product attached to it.
For the background, see where MES and batch sit in the stack, how MES powers traceability and compliance, how we connect MES to ERP and the control layer through IT/OT integration, and why many plants start with a plant systems assessment before choosing anything.
Why it matters
What this costs when it is left alone
The reasons this work gets deferred are usually the reasons it gets expensive.
MES is the most over-scoped project in the plant
Vendors sell modules, so the requirement list grows to match the brochure. Plants end up paying for functions their SCADA, historian or ERP already does, and still miss the two things operations needed.
Demos are rehearsed
A scripted demo on the vendor's sample data shows the product at its best. It says little about how your recipes, lot rules and line states will fit once the project team has gone.
Licence price is the small number
Integration with PLCs, SCADA and ERP, the data model, validation, upgrades and the people to support it usually outweigh the licence. A selection that ignores them picks the wrong product on price.
Traceability is now a customer and regulatory question
In food and beverage, lot genealogy and fast recall response are expected by retailers and by the FDA's food traceability rule under FSMA Section 204. An MES is often where those records live, so the choice has to account for them.
Our approach
How the work runs
We start from what the plant must do, not from what the products offer. Every requirement is placed at its ISA-95 level first, so the MES is asked to do only the work that belongs to it.
Define requirements from the floor up
- Workflows mapped with operations, quality and maintenance on the actual lines
- Each requirement placed at its ISA-95 level, against what SCADA, historian and ERP already cover
- Must-have, should-have and later, agreed with the people who will use it
Decide build, buy or extend
- Packaged MES compared with extending your SCADA platform, such as Ignition MES modules
- Fit with your plant standard, IT policies and the skills your team has
- Total cost of ownership over the life of the system, not the first year
Run a neutral selection
- Vendor-neutral RFP with requirements the vendor cannot quietly reinterpret
- Scripted demos run on your own products, recipes and plant data
- Weighted scoring by a panel from operations, quality, IT and engineering
Oversee the implementation
- Pilot line first, with acceptance criteria agreed before the build
- Integration design for PLC, SCADA and ERP, and a data model the plant owns
- Design reviews, test witness and a rollout plan for the remaining lines
What we deliver
What you end up holding
- Requirements specification placed against ISA-95 levels
- Build, buy or extend recommendation with total cost of ownership
- Vendor-neutral RFP, demo scripts and weighted scoring model
- Selection report with the scoring record and the reasons behind it
- Pilot scope, acceptance criteria and integration architecture
- Implementation oversight through pilot and rollout
Who we support
Who this is for
- Operations and plant leaders
- who have been sold an MES before, or are being sold one now, and want the decision made on the plant's terms.
- Quality and food safety teams
- who need traceability, genealogy and electronic records that hold up in a recall or a customer audit.
- IT and corporate engineering
- who must fit the MES between ERP and the control layer and support it across sites for years.
Why Joltek
What you are actually buying
We resell nothing
No MES vendor, integrator or software reseller pays us. The recommendation can be a packaged MES, an extension of what you run, or not buying anything yet.
The plant floor is where we start
Our requirements come from people who have run lines and carried maintenance on them, so the system is specified for night shift, not for the steering committee.
Selection and delivery under one owner
The same team that wrote the requirements holds the implementation to them, so scope does not drift between the contract and the go-live.
Questions
Answered before you ask
How do you choose an MES?
Start with requirements from the plant floor and place each one at its ISA-95 level, so the MES only does what SCADA, historian and ERP do not. Then compare build, buy and extend options on total cost of ownership, and score vendor demos run on your own products and data.
Do we need an MES, or can SCADA do it?
Sometimes SCADA with a historian and a few targeted applications covers the need, especially for downtime tracking and simple production counts. Order execution, genealogy, electronic records and quality workflows across several lines are where a real MES usually earns its place. We tell you which side of that line you are on.
Are you tied to a particular MES vendor?
No. Joltek resells nothing and takes no referral fees. We know the major packaged products and the extend-your-SCADA approaches, including Ignition MES modules, and we recommend whichever fits the plant.
How long does an MES selection take?
For one site with clear sponsorship, requirements through vendor recommendation typically takes two to four months. Multi-site programs or plants that have not agreed their workflows take longer. The schedule is set by how fast your team can review requirements and attend demos.
Can you oversee an implementation we have already started?
Yes. We review the scope, the integration design and the acceptance criteria against what the plant needs, then act on your side through pilot and rollout. This is part of our owner's engineer work.
What does an MES need for food traceability?
Lot codes captured at receiving, every transformation and shipping, linked into a genealogy you can query in both directions in minutes. Under FSMA Section 204 the FDA expects key data elements at defined tracking events for listed foods. The MES has to capture those cleanly from the line, not from paper entered later.
Do you travel to US plants?
Yes. Joltek is based in Laval, near Montréal, and works with plants across Canada and the United States.
Have a project that needs technical ownership?
Send us the situation. If it is not something we should take on, we will say so.