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Focus: Manufacturing

Feature Article from Our Supply Chain Trends and Issues Subject Area - See All

From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine

June 19, 2012

 
Supply Chain News: Leading Discrete and Process Manufacturing Associations Combine, as MESA and WBF Complete Merger

 

MESA Making Big Push to Gain Members and Influence in Manufacturing; WBF's Communications Standards a Nice Fit with MESA Focus on "Plant to Enterprise"

 

SCDigest Editorial Staff

The planned merger of two manufacturing-related associations first announced a few weeks ago was recently finalized, as the discrete and process focused organizations MESA International and WBF, respectively, decided to join forces.

SCDigest Says:

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Combining MESA with WBF to form a single association across discrete, hybrid and process manufacturing needs would seem to make clear sense, especially as so many companies today have elements of two or even all three types of manufacturing processes within their operations.

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MESA was initially formed years ago to provide support for manufacturing execution system (MES) software providers, expanding its focus a bit over the years to more broadly cover manufacturing best practices and a broader overall scope. Some time back, MESA changed its acronym to stand for the "Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association" instead of Manufacturing Execution Systems.

Following from its MES roots, MESA has been generally oriented more towards discrete and hybrid manufacturing than process, though it does boast a number of process industry members such as Dow Chemical and Dupont.

WBF was originally an acronym for the World Batch Forum, and was founded to support the needs of process manufacturers (e.g., chemicals, steel, paper, etc.). It has more recently tag lined itself as "the organization for production technology," and tried to expand its presence, influence and membership to other types of manufacturers and vendors outside of process, with at best modest success.

The new organization will maintain the MESA international name. There will be a several month effort to integrated web sites and content to www.mesa.org, MESA's existing web site.

WBF had of late been hanging its hat on development of standards (known as B2MML) for communications between ERP and other supply chain software with industrial control systems and MES software used by manufacturers. The B2MML standard provides common data definitions for such communications.

As such, there is a synergy of sorts in the merger.

"MESA's focus is P2E - Plant to Enterprise; B2MML is the standard that makes that happen," said Dennis Brandl, then WBF Secretary, at the time the merger was announced. "In essence, MESA brings the what and why of operations management; WBF provides the how. Together, we are able to link enterprise goals with plant floor realities."


(Manufacturing article continued below)

CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON

 

 

Michael Yost, current president of MESA, will continue in that role for the combined organizations. It is not clear what will happen to current WBF executive director Katie Elsberry. Yost himself was named to that new position in March, supplanting the "executive director” role that had previously led MESA day to day operations.

 

The move can certainly been seen in the context of MESA's objective to significantly increase its membership numbers.

 

"Your board determined that our top priority is membership growth - specifically with manufacturers/producers," said John Southcott, MESA chairman and co-CEO of Brock Solutions, in a statement shortly after the boards of both organizations had approved the merger.

 

At the same time, Southcott described a revamp to MESA's goals and strategies, saying that the organization's focus would be to:

 

• Evolve from relevance at the plant/site level to encompass relevance to the enterprise

 

• Drive value to the individual (practitioner) and leadership

 

• Continue to develop world class content and deliver knowledge through global education

 

• Become the organization to certify professionals

 

Whether all these changes can breathe new life into MESA, which clearly over time had seemed to lose some energy and relevance, will remain to be seen, but combining with WBF to form a single association across discrete, hybrid and process manufacturing needs would seem to make clear sense, especially as so many companies today have elements of two or even all three types of manufacturing processes within their operations.

 

Any reaction to the MESA-WBF news? What would you like to see MESA do going forward? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.

 


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