The 12 Week MES Implementation Playbook (Plant by Plant)

Most MES rollouts in India quietly slip to 9 to 14 months. They do not need to. A focused 12 week plant rollout is achievable when scope is disciplined and the team is right sized.

Pre Week 0: The Pre Flight

Before week 1 begins, three things must be in place: an executive sponsor who is the single decision maker, a frozen scope document, and a dedicated plant team (1 IT lead + 1 production lead + 1 maintenance lead).

Weeks 1 to 2: Discovery & Mapping

• Two full days walking the shop floor with the plant team. No conference room until day 3.
• ISA 95 mapping: every line, machine, work centre, storage area documented.
• KPI definition: OEE, FPY, downtime, scrap, energy, with formulas signed off by the COO.
• Hardware survey: PLC makes/models, networking, edge node placement.

Weeks 3 to 4: Data Model & Integration

• Canonical event schema finalised.
• ERP integration contracts signed off (orders, BOMs, confirmations, scrap, quality).
• Machine connectivity proof of concept on one pilot line.
• Master data cleanup begins (this is always longer than estimated).

Weeks 5 to 8: Build

• Order execution module built and integrated.
• OEE engine running end to end on the pilot line.
• Downtime tagging workflow live on tablets.
• Paperless work instructions for the top 3 SKUs.
• Operator UI in the local language(s) tested with actual operators, not managers.

Weeks 9 to 10: Pilot

• One full pilot line, one full product family, three full shifts.
• Engineers physically on site every shift change.
• Daily 20 minute pilot stand up with corrections shipped before the next shift.
• KPIs baselined: OEE, downtime categories, confirmations.

Weeks 11 to 12: Rollout & Hyper Care

• Rollout to remaining lines.
• ERP cutover to MES sourced confirmations.
• Hyper care: 24x7 engineering presence for the first 4 weeks.
• Go / no go gate with the executive sponsor at end of week 12.