The changeover took 3 hours instead of 45 minutes, and nobody knows why. Can AI help? Not yet. AI cannot fix broken data, and it cannot analyze data that was never captured. Real wins come from capturing the right signals, making them consistent, and connecting them with context.

The Digitization Imperative

You’ve heard the buzz: manufacturers using AI are pulling ahead while others fall behind. McKinsey reports that digital leaders in manufacturing see 30-50% reductions in machine downtime and 10-20% increases in throughput. But here’s what the consultants won’t tell you: these wins don’t come from AI alone. They come from finally capturing and connecting the data that’s been invisible on your plant floor for years.

The gap between leaders and laggards is widening. Not because of AI magic, but because leaders digitized their operations first. They can see what’s happening, when it’s happening, and why it’s happening. Everyone else is still guessing.

Can AI Fix Your Data Problems?

Short answer: no.

AI can find patterns, but it cannot repair systemic problems like:

• Inconsistent naming (is it “changeover,” “setup,” or “product change”?)
• Missing links between systems (which tool was running when quality spiked?)
• Unsynchronized clocks (did the defect happen before or after the parameter change?)
• Signals that were never captured (nobody tracks individual changeover tasks)

For example, if you don’t track changeover tasks, tool IDs, or first-piece checks, no model can analyze or optimize them. At best, you get superficial correlations. At worst, you automate bad decisions.

The 6 Cs: What Your Data Must Have Before AI Can Help

AI needs 6 foundational elements to deliver value:

1. Coverage: The signals exist for the process you want to improve. Examples: machine states, setup times, changeover tasks, rejects, first-piece checks, maintenance work.
2. Consistency: Names, codes, and units mean the same thing everywhere. “Changeover” is not split across three different abbreviations.
3. Context: Events link across systems and time. A reject on Line 2 ties to product, lot, tooling, shift, and the exact recipe or program version.
4. Currency: Data reflects the current state. No working with yesterday’s numbers when today’s are available.
5. Cadence: Data flows from event to system fast enough to act
6. Credibility: People trust the numbers because they are complete, validated, and auditable.

What Goes Wrong Without These

You may be able to run your plant without these all at a high level of maturity but there are some downsides:

1. Machine blindness: You know changeover takes 3 hours but not why. After adding task-level tracking, one plant discovered 40% was waiting for QC approval … not actual setup work.
2. Tower of Babel: Three shifts log the same problem as “material issue,” “stock-out,” and “waiting for parts.” Management spends months fixing the wrong bottleneck until someone standardizes the codes.
3. Mystery failures: Scrap doubles every Tuesday afternoon. Six months of head-scratching until someone finally connects it to Monday’s raw material delivery from a specific supplier.
4. Yesterday’s news: Line switched to Product B two hours ago, but inventory system still allocating materials for Product A. Expedites and chaos ensue.
5. After-the-fact alerts: Operator notices quality drift at 2 PM. Alert hits the engineer’s screen at 2:20 PM. By then, 300 units are scrap.
6. Fantasy metrics: Dashboard shows 92% OEE. Operators know it’s closer to 70% because breaks aren’t logged and micro-stops under 3 minutes don’t count. Management celebrates the “good performance.”

Changeover Could Be a Great Starting Point

Changeover is the end-to-end set of tasks to switch products: de-stock, clean or sanitize, swap tooling, load recipe or program, first-piece check, ramp. While flow is the smooth movement of work with minimal stops, microstops, and rework across the line.

Why start here? Changeovers are frequent and measurable, and they force good data hygiene. Timestamp each task, standardize reason codes, and connect events to product, lot, line, shift, and version. You usually unlock net capacity quickly while building the same data foundation that later powers quality and maintenance use cases.

A Practical Digital Maturity Ladder

Every organization is at a different maturity level, if you find yourself at Level 0 or Level 1 it would be a good idea to evaluate if there are some digitization options that could get you started in the near future.

Level 0 – Paper: Whiteboards, tribal knowledge, spreadsheets
Level 1 – Digital Islands: Systems exist but don’t connect
Level 2 – Connected Operations: MES ties everything together with context
Level 3 – Trusted Intelligence: Governed data, validated entries, role-based views
Level 4 – Optimizing System: Metrics trigger actions, results feed improvements

Most plants can reach Level 2 in 90 days with focused scope.

Where AI and analytics pay off first

• Changeover time reduction: Identify the longest tasks, sequence them better, pre-stage materials and tools, and standardize best practice. Small savings per change add up to real capacity.
• Downtime and microstop patterns: Cluster similar stops to target the true top loss. Many plants win here before moving to heavier predictive work.
• Quality drift alerts: Start simple with rule-based thresholds tied to process context. Move to predictive models once false alarms are low.
• Maintenance prioritization: Combine run conditions, fault history, and criticality to rank what to fix next.
• Schedule optimization: Use actual setup times and changeover data to plan sequences that minimize total loss.

Metrics That Show You’re Ready

• Being able to quickly track these metrics isn’t optional, it’s the foundation for unlocking AI value.
• Critical equipment with state tracking: >90%
• Downtime/rejects with standard codes: >95%
• Events linked to full context: >80%
• Event to dashboard time: <5 minutes
• Data quality score: >85%
• Changeover variance by product: <10%

How Atachi Helps

Atachi specializes in rapidly connecting your manufacturing data islands. We typically:

• First 30 days: Connect machine states and operator inputs with full context, standardize code lists
• By 90 days: Link MES, QMS, CMMS, and ERP across your systems
• By Month 4: Deploy role-based dashboards operators actually trust

Once your data foundation is solid, AI becomes a plug-and-play addition rather than a science project.

Take Action Now

You do not need millions or a two-year roadmap. Start on one line, prove value in 90 days, and build momentum.

AI rewards plants that measure the right things the same way every day. Build coverage, consistency, context, currency, cadence, and credibility. Start with changeovers and flow, then expand with confidence.

When will you start?

What Is MES Software? Some Important Benefits and Details

The Hidden Factory – Not To Be Ignored:

The Hidden Factory refers to parts of a manufacturing process that decrease the quality or efficiency of operation -the mistakes, the rework, the waste – all the things that are kept hidden from the eyes of the customer. It is called the “hidden factory,” and it causes unseen profit leaks to companies every day of every year. 

• These wasteful processes and work go unreported and undocumented and are dangerous to a company’s bottom line.
• These factories are fueled by a dangerous attitude that the headaches and heartache caused by this Hidden Factory are surely worth it if the customer remains unaware and is ultimately happy with the product.
• All too often these daily drains on resources are going unnoticed or are even accepted as part of the process itself.           

Of course, you care about lost time, money, and effort, but how are you supposed to correct something you can’t see?

MES- How It Exposes The Hidden Factory:

A modern Manufacturing Execution System (MES) captures data that can be analyzed to uncover flawed processes, providing insights that expose the hidden factory.

How?

• A flexible MES documents, tracks, and reports the time it takes to deal with events  When studied with a trained eye, these reports reveal what went right and what went wrong. 
•  Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) deliver a number of long and short-term manufacturing benefits, as well as strategic benefits such as improved yields, lowering operating costs, and increased compliance.

What is MES?

According to MESA (Manufacturing Execution System Association International),

• Manufacturing execution systems deliver information that enables the optimization of production activities from order launch to finished goods. 
• Using current and accurate data, MES guides, initiates, responds to, and reports on plant activities as they occur. 
• The resulting rapid response to changing conditions, coupled with a focus on reducing non-value-added activities, drives effective plant operations and processes. 
• MES provides mission-critical information about production activities across the enterprise and supply chain via bidirectional communications.”
• Manufacturing Execution Systems collect multiple plants’ production information and integrate easily with equipment, controllers, and enterprise business applications. 
• Although MES solutions are used to operate as a self-contained system, they are increasingly being integrated with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. 
• The result is complete visibility, control, and manufacturing optimization – from the order placing, production inception, and process control to product output.

Why Do Companies Need A Manufacturing Execution System?

• Many companies still enter data manually or share work instructions on paper. Most of them, however, know there is a better way to organize the mass of activity happening on the plant floor.
• MES provides visibility to that activity as well as the underlying data, uses that data to improve how that activity is done and makes it repeatable. 
• It connects multiple sites, integrates with equipment, and raises the effectiveness of business applications all to better optimize operations.
• MES technology is helping manufacturers to reduce cycle times and achieve cost savings (production does not continue when critical issues are encountered), whereas the opportunity to improve planning activities is also resulting in improved utilization of equipment. 
• These systems also automate many manual documentation tasks, thereby eliminating related deviations and achieving better compliance. They are also removing calculation and review tasks that ordinarily would require considerable manual effort.

How does the move towards web-based MES solutions making it easier to support production operations and real-time activities: 

• HTML5 support now enables organizations to access MES across a range of digital devices, including tablets and smartphones, with ease. 
• This makes it a lot easier to migrate manual processes to the electronic world as the need to deploy expensive infrastructures no longer exists; all is needed is a wireless network, which is often already in place. 
• The device proliferation also simplifies real-time involvement in the process, making all parties aware of what is happening at any given time. 
• Although planning needs to remain a cornerstone of GMP, being aware of issues as they occur provides a level of understanding that often cannot be achieved after the fact, thus leading to better decision making.
• Although some manufacturers are still wary about the associated challenges that go together with implementing a new system, breaking the project down into phases, starting with the functionality that will provide the biggest return, can make the whole process much more approachable. 
• Indeed, once the organization has created a success story and brought all its stakeholders on board, it’s easier to define the scope of the remaining areas.

The 3 Pillars of an MES:

• Establishing a plan and staying on schedule

  The system takes your input – production shifts/times, production goals, etc. and calculates your TAKT time. Operators see real-time progress on dashboard graphics, knowing the progress at every moment.

• Enforcing a repeatable process

  Knowing your process is being followed exactly as defined provides the ultimate peace of mind. Every step, from fastening to product routing, is nailed just as you defined it time after time.

• Creating a rich data set:

  Capturing data is one thing; being able to act on that data is really the key to driving improvement initiatives. Use your business intelligence platform, explore your data set, and identify and solve your hidden inefficiencies.

All three of these MES pillars are used to help you reach productivity and quality goals by:

• Solving production scheduling challenges
• Discovering and sharing your best operators’ insights
• Uncovering inefficiencies in your process and fixing them
• Reducing the exhausting task of putting out fires
• Establishing a continuous improvement philosophy
• Increasing operator engagement and dedication

MES Is For All Industries:

• Manufacturing execution systems (MES) are being used across industries, and are seen in a number of the discrete, batch, and continuous process manufacturing industries including semiconductor, aerospace, metals, plastics electronics, medical devices, automotive, pharmaceuticals, glass, and more. 
• A Manufacturing Execution System (MES) with a configurable platform adapts to the users’ business without custom code, and has an open SOA architecture designed for ease of integration to enterprise applications and shop floor automation.

But Why Should Pharma And Biotech Companies Use An MES?

What is MES in pharma?

• Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) enable pharmaceutical manufacturers to improve performance and reduce operational cost, while simultaneously increasing compliance with regulatory requirements.
• MES digitizes your pharma and biotech production.  In today’s intense economic conditions, spiraling overheads are compelling manufacturers to optimize their production processes, leading to a demand for new approaches that can improve efficiency and better utilize expensive resources.
• As the industry evolves and the complexity of managing drug manufacturing programs increases, MES technology has also advanced at considerable speed and come a long way in terms of functionality and flexibility.
• MES solutions enable manufacturers to plan, direct, track and analyze every stage of their operations. 
• Today, these systems provide real-time management capabilities, full support to replace paper documents with electronic documentation (electronic batch records [EBRs] and electronic logbooks [eLogbooks]), and seamless integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and automation systems.
• They also offer compatibility with multiple plug-in applications, meaning they can accommodate the most complex workflows into their design while contributing new levels of adaptability through modularity and off-the-shelf configuration. 
• MES technology is equipping manufacturers with comprehensive data to help with proper recipe management and electronic batch processing recording, reducing the risk of production issues and, most importantly, improving product quality. And they are an important prerequisite for digitization and Pharma 4.0.
• At the highest level, MES needs integration between the ERP and shop floor automation.

What Is The MES System In SAP?

• SAP maintains the record of materials, BOM, routings, and orders; the MES maintains the records/transactions such as WIP (work in progress). 
• For implementing the MES, the consultant has to perform a detailed analysis of MES requirements such that they can be mapped with the manufacturing environment. 
• The consultant has to perform the analysis of the integration with SAP PP since there is an overlap of functionality offered by SAP and MES software

Companies like Atachi Systems have worked with several top global pharma manufacturing companies who have used the other MES platforms and struggled to get the value out of these MES platforms; hence we call them legacy platforms. 

• Atachi NGIMES platform has eliminated all the pain points that companies are struggling with legacy platforms. 
• Their platform is the only MES solution entirely built on the SAP HANA platform that leverages Big Data analytics and AI, which need tomorrow’s business. 

Because of these reasons, Atachi systems have been listed as TOP Global MES platforms by several research firms in the last few years, repeatedly.

What are Atachi solutions offerings for Pharma 4.0?

• They are helping the pharma manufacturers to get them on to the Pharma 4.0 journey and realize complete business agility (quickly and cost-effectively) for their customers with real-time insights. 
• As part of their platform, they offer EBMR, logbooks, DMS, CAPA, IIOT, TMS, Supplier quality management, Real-time analytics, Mobility, big data, and AI at a single license cost. 
• Users don’t need to pay separately for each functionality; everything comes as a single package in a USE-AS-NEEDED approach.

MES is a Holistic Solution:

MES isn’t a stop-gap, quick-fix, or miracle solution (although it can seem magical at times). It’s really a system for digitally transforming your entire facility’s manufacturing execution.

You need to explore how an MES implementation will influence your established processes and how those processes may change. That requires upfront thought about change management within your organization. MES software is powerful and dynamic, yet it needs everyone to be on board to make it effective.

Atachi Systems Pledges Free Mes Software For 50 Small Medical Devices & Diagnostics, Pharma And Life Sciences Manufacturers For 1 Year.

Atachi Systems Pledges Free MES software for 50 Small Medical Devices & Diagnostics, Pharma and Life Sciences Manufacturers for 1 year.

Atachi Systems would like to join the community in helping the small and medium manufacturers by providing Next Generation Manufacturing Execution Systems (NGIMES) software for the next 12 months for free.

[San Jose, California, USA] – NGIMES is the “premiere” MES for pharmaceutical manufacturing companies that use SAP ERP. It helps comply with 21CFR Part 11 electronic signatures, FDA audits, validation and confirms to US FDA cGMP requirements. Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies can take advantage of the cloud based MES (NGIMES) to contain costs while delivering accelerated performance with its in-memory computing platform.

Atachi Systems is pledging to give the NGIMES – Next Gen MES software (SAP Certified for being built on SAP Cloud Platform) running in the cloud FREE for the next 12 months for the first 50 small and mid-size manufacturers.

Due to Coronavirus epidemic, a new medical urgency has emerged now, and the disease burden of the world has increased manifold. To fight against this, it will be essential for pharmaceutical companies to develop effective new medicines to address the demands of the whole world at a faster pace than ever. Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturers are working very hard to produce the drugs and medical supplies, the demand for which is much higher than ever anticipated, that can provide the relief for the humanity at this time.

It is critical time for the humanity to fight against this epidemic and for this the Pharma manufacturers will have to collaborate with numerous service providers to deliver packages of care.

The fact that governments and health insurers everywhere are struggling to contain their expenditure. The issue is further exacerbated by the current economic turmoil that will put even greater financial pressure on the payer community. All the governments and businesses across the world have joined in funding the efforts to overcome this crisis.

Atachi Systems (atachisystems.com) would like to join hands with the community in helping the small and medium manufacturers in producing the medical supplies or devices and drugs in a compliant manner by giving our Next Generation Manufacturing Execution Systems (NGIMES), software for the next 12 months for free without any strings attached to continue the software afterwards. For speeding up manufacturing the drugs and medical devices and diagnostics and delivering it to the market.
“We take pride in honouring Atachi Systems as one among the 10 MES companies that are specialized in providing Pharmaceutical Manufacturing solutions,” said Stacey Smith, Managing Editor of Pharma Tech Outlook.

The cloud-based NGIMES platform offers a quality user experience, allowing effectively manage manufacturing operations using a single unified system. End-to-end supply chain and production visibility enables you to stay on top of every material movement and changes in production data across the enterprise.

NGIMES offers seamless setup and does not require investments in additional servers or IT maintenance. It’s highly flexible to serve complex manufacturing companies of all sizes without disrupting existing infrastructure. Integration is seamless with your other applications, either on the cloud or on the premises.

About Atachi Systems:

Atachi Systems provides manufacturing companies with a seamless, cloud-based Manufacturing Execution System that reduces dependencies on infrastructure, lowers maintenance costs, and improves access to real-time visibility of shop-floor operations for engineers and managers at all levels. The company was founded in 2007 to streamline the MES solutions that enable discrete and continuous manufacturing companies to improve efficiency and grow profits.

For more info, visit: www.atachisystems.com

Media Contact:
Atachi Systems (www.atachisystems.com)
info@atachisystems.com
(408)-839-1743
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