Architecture for analyzing manufacturing execution data - using Business Intelligence logic

To compete in global markets, companies today require more structured data in faster cycles to support their strategic and operational decisions. To meet these requirements enterprise resource planning (ERP)-software providers integrate more and more analytical operations as well as reporting functions into their systems. But while ERP-Software is focusing on corporate management, there are plenty of other not integrated systems throughout the organization which e.g. control the human-machine interaction or run the value adding processes of the organization. Hence, there are shortcomings in the structuring and the analysis of the data on the shop floor level since the ERP and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) are still very heterogeneous and often not very well integrated. Our design science-oriented case study on a Business Intelligence (BI) implementation on the shop floor level addresses these problems. Our approach moves away from the classic reporting functions of the shop floor to ERP but rather suggests evaluating the shop floor data in real-time in order to control the production process. This case study identifies more generalized issues which can potentially be applied to other situational and organizational contexts.