Data model design for manufacturing execution system

Purpose - Since the data model plays an important role in designing manufacturing execution system (MES) database, this paper seeks to provide a generic and adaptable data model for MES, which can facilitate and improve the MES development. Design/methodology/approach - Extended entity-relationship (EER) model technique is adopted to build the data model of MES. Findings - Based on MES functions and database requirement analysis, four subject's structures of MES database is abstracted from a system integration point of view. These four structures are independent relatively but also have close interrelation. Each structure is modeled with EER model. Research limitations/implications - The presented data model mainly focuses on discrete manufacturing MES, which perhaps limits its usefulness elsewhere, and the data model still need further testing in manufacturing enterprises with different scales. Practical implications - A prototype MES system is developed and implemented, the results show that the proposed EER modeling approach can establish and make clear complex relationships among entities existed in a manufacturing system, which lays the foundation for adaptable and modular MES software development and implementation. Originality/value - This paper fulfils a fundamental need of designing data model for MES and provides a main framework for developing MES data model, which provides reference for researches both in academia and industry to build specific relational data models for specific needs.