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ing physically in a digital format, and ensure adequate degrees of quality as established in the quality procedures. MES can ensure adequate equipment utilization and equipment effi- ciency. MES can support all those things, guiding the opera- tions to become more produc- tive, and create more efficient processes and better quality. MES makes complete sense because it aggregates and gath- ers all those aspects in one sin- gle system that then can serve and be utilized for continuous improvement processes. Bringing in a system is a big pro- cess that requires a significant investment. What are some misconceptions about what it takes to launch an MES system in a factory? An MES project is always a bit disruptive to operations because if a shop does not have a system that controls and monitors its work and how the work should be performed, it is basically people executing it in their own minds and doing things how they have always done them. An MES project will bring discipline and require the operators to do things not required when they had no con- trols on their system. It's com- monly known that an MES proj- ect is very complex. It requires time and effort. In our experi- ence, the more an organization is prepared to enter into an MES project, the less disruption and complexity it will have—and the less time and costs it will have. Preparation for an MES proj- ect is essential for two reasons: to ensure that the project will be successful, and to verify and minimize all the cost variables. Planning speaks directly to the complexity and duration of your project and to ensuring that you have adequate equipment inter- faces early on. Standardized equipment interfaces, such as CFX, are essential because inte- grating a machine that already supports a standard interface requires significantly less effort, time, and cost compared to inte- grating one without standardized capabilities. Also, if processes are described accurately in the planning phase, even in some- thing as simple as PowerPoint slides, the mapping of such pro- cesses in the MES takes much less time than doing it through endless conversations, which is inefficient and often unclear. When you are in the prepara- tion stage, are you already look- ing at IoT sensors in all the pro- cesses? Is that requirement part of sound project preparation? The MES system you deploy should be adaptable and pro- vide adequate levels of scalabil- ity for an organization to engage in both a smooth introduction using the system and a phased approach to building onto that system. It is a little Utopian to expect that, from one day to