A Discussion Regarding the Reason behind the Emergence and Existence of MES

―From a Historical Viewpoint of Factory Computerization―

Abstract

　In today's discussion of Industry 4.0, we frequently find the word of MES (Manufacturing Execution System). MES is a system that appeared in the 1990s, which is not something new, but has existed in the center of the production systems in large factories. It is now becoming one of the most important words that a lot of people, including non-specialists in the computer and manufacturing field, need to understand to be able to discuss Industry 4.0. This is because these days the discussion of Industry 4.0 applies not only to large-scale factories, but to small and medium-sized factories as well. Moreover, this discussion has become widely talked about not only in the field of business administration such as marketing, management strategy, human resource management, etc., but in other social science fields such as labor economics. However, although there have been many technical interpretations of MES, there have been few previous studies that clearly explain why MES appeared as a new system in the 1990s, when computerization had been advancing. Therefore, in this paper, I would like to consider the reason why MES appeared and its background, using layman's terms as much as possible to be understood in various specialists’ fields.