Project Retrospectives · Published October 1, 2026
Retrospective: Integrating ERP With MES
The hard part of integration is not the interface, but getting two departments to agree on what a field means.
The client, an equipment manufacturer, wanted work orders synced from ERP to MES and completion data sent back. Planned at six weeks, it took eleven, and nearly all the extra time went into agreeing on field meanings.
Three sticking points
Status mismatch: ERP had seven states, MES had four, and the mapping was debated for two weeks.
Batch numbering conflict: both systems generated batch numbers in different formats that could not be matched.
Unstable shop-floor network: some areas had poor signal and failed uploads had no retry, so data was lost.
How we resolved it
A joint on-site workshop mapped each of the seven states to the four, with exceptions handled manually.
ERP became the sole source of batch numbers and MES only referenced them, removing the double key.
MES gained a local queue that retries uploads when the network recovers, with a log of each replay.
Manufacturing projects are decided on the shop floor. Watching one real transaction beats debating status codes in a meeting room.
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