Manufacturing Execution System (MES)

A manufacturing execution system is the Level 3 layer in the ISA-95 model, where it manages manufacturing operations. It sits between the Level 2 monitoring and supervisory control devices, such as PLCs and DCSs, and the Level 4 business planning and logistics systems, such as ERP. ISA-95 primarily defines the interface between levels 3 and 4.

Source checked2/2 values · 2026-10-25System

Specification

2 sources

Kind	system
Origin	ISA-95 (ANSI/ISA-95, IEC 62264), Level 3 of the five-level model

Study notes

ISA-95 is also published as ANSI/ISA-95 and adopted as IEC 62264.
The ISA-95 model has five levels, 0 to 4, and is based on the Purdue Reference Model for computer-integrated manufacturing.
Level 0 covers the physical production processes: machinery and other assets in the field or on the floor.
Level 1 covers sensors, smart devices and valves that sense or affect production.
Level 2 covers monitoring and supervisory control, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and distributed control systems (DCSs).
Level 3 also includes supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems alongside MES.
Level 4 covers business planning and logistics activities, including enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
ISA-95 was established in the mid-1990s and is technology-agnostic, prioritising activities rather than technologies.
The ISA95 committee oversees creation of the standards, aiming to define an abstract model of the enterprise and common terminology.