Basis for the model-driven engineering of manufacturing execution systems: Modeling elements in the domain of beer brewing

Manufacturing execution systems (MES) are process-oriented IT solutions that collect and manage information from manufacturing processes to improve transparency. Owing to the considerable programming effort required for the implementation of custom systems for specific production processes, investing in MES is not an option for many food and beverage manufacturers. Model-driven engineering (MDE) is one solution for reducing the implementation costs involved in custom systems. However, a concrete MDE approach that fulfills the requirements of the food and beverage industry has not yet been established for MES. With this background, this paper introduces an MDE approach for MES and focuses on the first step in implementing this approach by defining the modeling elements of MES functions that enable the automatic transformation from models into an operational MES. The modeling elements are defined for the four components of an MES solution: the plant model illustrating the technical systems, the process model describing the production processes, the MES function model representing the required MES functions and the report model showing the results of MES functions. A use case in the domain of beer brewing is presented to evaluate the proposed approach. This use case demonstrates the feasibility and suitability of predefined modeling elements in the modeling phase for automatic MES generation.