Plex Systems, Siemens, Dassault Systèmes, and GE Digital are Leaders in ABI Research’s Manufacturing Execution System Competitive Ranking

I pass this news along as it came. I’m never sanguine about these studies. I don’t see much detail about companies studied. Often they are either clients of the analyst firm or pay a fee to be analyzed. I have no idea about this one. 

Manufacturing Execution Systems (according to ABI) or Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions (according to the trade group MESA) comprise a variety of software solutions for manufacturing—usually discrete. Companies in the market may or may not provide the entire scope of products involved—inventory, routing, quality, laboratory, workflow, recipes, and much more.

Typically the market consists of smaller software companies, although much consolidation occurred some time ago as GE Digital, Rockwell Automation, Siemens, and companies that became AVEVA/Schneider Electric acquired MES companies. Rockwell has been on a recent buying spree as it picked up cloud capabilities with Plex.

The disclaimer from ABI Research—The new Manufacturing Execution System (MES) competitive assessment by global technology intelligence firm ABI Research provides an in-depth and unbiased examination of the MES solutions offered by 12 manufacturing execution system suppliers. 

The companies evaluated and ranked are:

Market Leaders: Plex Systems, Siemens, Dassault Systèmes, and GE Digital

Mainstream: Apprentice.io, Tulip, Parsec Automation Corp., Aegis Software, Critical Manufacturing, Oracle, and Rockwell Automation

Follower: Emerson

Criteria

A total of 12 criteria were chosen for the analysis and segmented across innovation and implementation clusters. These include the solution’s comprehensiveness and offer of innovative functionality, the accessibility of the software, cloud functionality and data sharing capabilities, user experience found in low/no code functionality, the MES’s contribution to the manufacturer’s digital thread capabilities, and pricing guarantees. The report further evaluates MES vendor’s ability to deliver their MES globally, their experience in delivering the software to manufacturers, the company’s vertical market expertise and partnership place, and the MES offering’s ability to interoperate with other enterprise software.

Rationale for ranking:

  • Plex Systems came out on top overall in the competitive ranking due to its innovative cloud-native MES design, rapid time to deployment, broad customer base, and strong pricing guarantees. 
  • Siemens came in second overall, due to its significant customer base and deployment experience in all manufacturing verticals. Both firms scored well across all criteria. 
  • Dassault Systèmes scored particularly well in the implementation criteria, ranking second, with a solid customer base and extensive global partnership network, serving nearly all industry verticals. Its lower innovation scoring kept it from taking one of the top spots overall. 
  • GE Digital, also a leader and fourth overall, scored strongly in both implementation and innovation, earning good marks for accessibility, user experience, and implementation time. 
  • “Apprentice.io and Tulip earned top spots of the mainstream vendors due to their innovative cloud-native MES solutions,” explains James Prestwood, Industrial and Manufacturing Principal Analyst at ABI Research.

“Overall, the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software market is going through an evolutionary stage, with the on-premises legacy systems beginning to give way to a more agile cloud-based design. Leaders in the MES space are those able to adapt their offerings to this change and deliver flexible and fast-paced deployments.”

These findings are from the Manufacturing Execution Software competitor ranking report. This report is part of the company’s Industrial and Manufacturing Technology research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights.

Share This

Follow this blog

Get a weekly email of all new posts.