Tulip, Siemens, Parsec, and AVEVA Named Leaders in ABI Research’s Competitive Assessment of MES for Process Industries.

The Manufacturing Execution System (MES) market has experienced significant innovation and changes in recent years, with increased focus on quality, supply chain capabilities, cybersecurity, and the expectation of robust low- or no-code functionality. These changes are all underpinned by the transition from MES to Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) and the rise of AI tools augmenting solutions. ABI Research, a global technology intelligence firm, evaluated 12 MES vendors to determine which providers are sufficiently servicing the needs of process industries based on levels of innovation and implementation.

Process industries benefit significantly from tailored MES solutions due to the tightly controlled nature of their operations, often with a combination of batch and continuous production processes. These solutions must be closely integrated with Distributed Control Systems (DCS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and must connect to (or include) robust recipe management functionality to ensure absolute alignment with required processes. Stringent regulatory requirements further necessitate the need for strong traceability, material management, and genealogy capabilities.

“Process manufacturers highly value comprehensive solutions that support enterprise scalability while enabling plant-level configurability,” said James Prestwood, ABI Research Industry Analyst. “MES solutions need to be easily templatized for rapid rollouts, but with the flexibility to adapt to specific plant processes. MES vendors are increasingly highlighting how they can deliver this deployment architecture out of the box to customers. For many vendors, this has extended beyond just MES solutions to complete, natively integrated technology stacks that allow for entire digital transformation journeys to be delivered across an enterprise through a single portfolio.”

Tulip, Siemens, Parsec, and AVEVA were named the leading MES vendors, with their respective solutions Frontline Operations Platform, Opcenter, TrakSYS, and AVEVA MES. Tulip tanks first overall, driven by its leading innovation score. Tulip’s ability to supply adaptable yet regulatory compliant applications for all functionality requirements is an extremely compelling value proposition. When combined with the solution’s flexible, cloud-native design, competitive price point, and excellent post-deployment support, Tulip earned its status as the Overall Leader in the assessment.

Siemens ranked second with highly competitive scores for both implementation and innovation criteria. The vendor provides a robust MES that benefits significantly from being part of the company’s wide-ranging, unified solution portfolio. Customers can easily leverage natively integrated tools and functionality, from design to manufacturing, providing an incredibly compelling value proposition for manufacturers looking to connect their operations with an integrated, platform-based system and drive rapid digital transformation and digital thread construction.

Parsec ranked third in the assessment, with its leading implementation ranking driven by excellent process industry deployment experience and competitive scoring across all implementation criteria. Their offering represents a complete and highly adaptable MES solution that all manufacturers in the process industry should consider, especially if they are looking for a solution that can be extensively tailored to meet specific requirements while also supporting rapid Return on Investment (ROI) and scaling from deployments.

AVEVA rounds out the overall leadership rankings with the solution scoring competitively for deployment experience thanks to the company’s notable experience in process industry operations. The implementation partnership criteria was another strong point for AVEVA, which boasts a highly competitive deployment partnership ecosystem.

Notably, Rockwell Automation, while not ranked as an overall leader, earned high marks in innovation, earning the vendor an Innovation Leader designation. The company’s combination of strong work order scheduling and planning capabilities, a robust OOTB MES toolset, and other advanced supply chain-based tools within a single cloud-native platform represents a compelling value proposition. The solution should be a core consideration for manufacturers that place a priority on robust cloud capabilities and comprehensive multi-site connectivity and plant collaboration.

With the MES for Process Industries competitive assessment, vendors and end users can see how MES software competes in the market, and where vendors can improve offerings to better facilitate the needs of process manufacturers.

These findings are from ABI Research’s MES for Process Industries competitive assessment. This report is part of the company’s Industrial and Manufacturing Technologies research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights.