The following list of manufacturing execution software (MES) will help you choose the right tool for getting a clear picture of what’s going on inside your operation, so you can wrangle it under your control to achieve greater business results.
Without clear insights into what’s happening in manufacturing facilities and an understanding of the day-to-day work needs, you cannot reach flexibility and meet customer expectations. We created this list because at Veryable, we empower manufacturing companies to achieve operational improvements by creating their own labor pool of on-demand workers, and they can’t do that without knowing what their actual daily needs are.
In this article, you’ll see a brief description and reviews for each software to give you a quick reference point for choosing the right MES for you. All of these appear on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant as leaders or challengers, and average at least a four-star rating (out of five stars) across publicly available user reviews.
AVEVA
Aveva (formerly Wonderware) boasts on its website of having more than 20,000 customers worldwide and 5,500 partners. The company offers industrial software for many purposes, one of which is manufacturing execution. The software is sold as a “model-driven” approach that emphasizes digital workflow management and user experience configurations.
Pricing: subscription models available, pricing unlisted
Reviews:
- Capterra: n/a
- G2: n/a
- Gartner peer insights: 4.2 (28 reviews)
Critical Manufacturing
Critical Manufacturing highlights the modular, configurable features of its solution. It bills itself as a low-code solution providing an intuitive interface for accessing the deep features manufacturers are accustomed to with other solutions.
Pricing: unlisted
Reviews:
- Capterra: n/a
- G2: n/a
- Gartner peer insights: 4.9 (27 reviews)
Dassault Systems Delmia / Apriso
An established player, Delmia from Dassault provides modeling tools, collaboration tools, and all the standard trappings of a manufacturing execution system. The design is not as modern as some of the other systems, and the product’s website is a labyrinth, but if you can look past that, you will find a longstanding product with user communities and a comprehensive software suite.
Pricing: unlisted
Reviews:
- Capterra: 4.1 (286 reviews)
- G2: 4.2 (12 reviews)
- Gartner peer insights: 4.4 (24 reviews)
Oracle Cloud Manufacturing
Oracle is another established player, and companies around the world use their solution. Product changes are thoroughly documented on the company’s website, and there is a customer community for best practices and implementation feedback. The Cloud Manufacturing software is part of the overall Supply Chain Management Cloud offering.
Pricing: unlisted
Reviews:
- Capterra: 3.9 (9 reviews)
- G2: 4.1 (6 reviews)
- Gartner peer insights: 4.3 (33 reviews)
Parsec TrakSYS
Boasting the second-highest reviews of any software on this list with a 4.7-star average, Parsec’s TrakSYS is used by more than 8,200 factories and boasts users from well-known brands like BP, Cummins, Bayer, and Bridgestone. The solution is cloud-based and customizable, while maintaining interoperability through industry standard protocols.
Pricing: unlisted
Reviews:
- Capterra: 4.5 (38 reviews)
- G2: n/a
- Gartner peer insights: 4.9 (34 reviews)
Plex
Plex was recently acquired by Rockwell Automation. The company offers a full suite of software from MES to SCP. It offers a user community and other resources for customer success, including professional, educational, and support services. Plex recently updated the user interface for a better user experience, but still offers a “classic” interface.
Pricing: specifics unlisted, subscription model
Reviews:
- Capterra: 4.2 (11 reviews)
- G2: 3.5 (19 reviews)
- Gartner peer insights: 4.5 (45 reviews)
SAP
SAP’s manufacturing execution solution offers on-site or cloud deployment and is designed for easy integration with the company’s ERP software. The user interface might look a bit dated, but the brand is an established player and the company’s website claims that 98% of the top 100 most valued brands in the world use SAP software.
Pricing: unlisted
Reviews:
- Capterra: n/a
- G2: 4.5 (7 reviews)
- Gartner peer insights: 4.1 (41 reviews)
Siemens Digital Industries Software (Opcenter)
Siemens highlights Opcenter’s mobile interface and “codeless extensibility” on its website as distinguishing features. The software company offers configurations for industries with specific compliance needs, like medical device manufacturers.
Pricing: unlisted
Reviews:
- Capterra: n/a
- G2: 3.4 (4 reviews)
- Gartner peer insights: 4.3 (53 reviews)
Tulip
The highest rated software on this list (4.9-star average), Tulip sells itself as an alternative to MES software, while offering much of the same functionality. Its website positions the software as a “connected frontline operations platform,” and is focused on fast deployment. It takes a piecemeal approach to implementing its many apps and interfaces so companies can scale as needed while making their own customizations with no-code tools.
Pricing: Starts at $1,200 per station per year, then $2,400 per station per year for IIoT integration, then custom pricing for enterprise solutions
Reviews:
- Capterra: n/a
- G2: 4.8 (2 reviews)
- Gartner peer insights: 4.9 (22 reviews)
Roll out improvements with flexibility and agility
When you’re implementing a new system for achieving operational improvements, you will find it helpful to have flexible capacity. As you better understand your needs, you’ll likely realize that there’s a lot of fluctuation from day to day. Rather than aim at average, respond accurately to demand and flex your capacity daily with on-demand labor.
To get started today, create your free business profile on Veryable’s on-demand labor marketplace.
