Yokogawa Releases OpreX Batch MES | ARC Advisory Group

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces the global release of OpreX Batch MES, a product in the OpreX™ Asset Operations and Optimization family. OpreX Batch MES is a manufacturing execution system (MES) package intended for use in batch plants that produce specialty and fine chemicals.

Batch plants that produce specialty and fine chemicals consist of both automatic control and manual tasks in their production processes. This requires systems that can guarantee manufacturing procedures and rules are adhered to and manufacturing records are reliably kept, thereby preventing manufacturing defects and accidents, ensuring traceability, and facilitating the digitalization of processes and transfer of know-how. Specialty and fine chemicals are characterized by high-mix, low-volume production and a short product lifecycle, and customers thus need a certain level of flexibility to establish and revise manufacturing processes themselves.

OpreX Batch MES is a software package for specialty and fine chemical batch plants that enables the management and confirmation of the status of manufacturing processes, provides support to operators, and offers smooth linkage with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and integrated production control systems. OpreX Batch MES offers the following features:

Flexible modification of manufacturing proceduresFor added flexibility, modifications to manufacturing procedures can now all be done using a low code development approach. This includes modifications to recipes (a comprehensive set of instructions for the manufacturing process specifying items such as the measurement of raw materials and the timing and temperature of specific processes), standard operating procedures (SOP: a set of step-by-step instructions on how to execute a specific process), and flow charts (conditions and determination rules at each stage of the manufacturing procedure).

Encourages utilization of knowledge and new learnings by accumulating the knowledge and linking it to the jobConventionally, a handover on a work site involved passing information verbally or by means of a memo on a notepad or other such media, but now it is possible to digitally record and refer to new learnings and evidence consisting of free-format text, photos, video, and audio from a screen that is operated directly during production, helping to pass on know-how.

Batch plants that manufacture specialty and fine chemicals (semiconductor chemicals, semiconductor mounting materials, adhesives and sealants, construction chemicals, industrial cleaners, fragrances, high-performance resins, etc.)

Manufacturing execution management for specialty and fine chemicals