  Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) optimize production and business
processes at the same time. However, the engineering and specification of MES
is a challenging, interdisciplinary process. Especially IT and production
experts with different views and background have to cooperate. For successful
and efficient MES software projects, misunderstandings in the specification
process have to be avoided. Therefore, textual specifications need to be
complemented by unambiguous graphical models, reducing the complexity by
integrating interdisciplinary views and domain specific terms based on
different background knowledge. Today's modeling notations focus on the
detailed modeling of a certain domain specific problem area. They do not
support interdisciplinary discussion adequately. To bridge this gap a novel MES
Modeling Language (MES-ML) integrating all necessary views important for MES
and pointing out their interdependencies has been developed. Due to its formal
basis, comparable and consistent MES-models can be created for specification,
standardization, testing, and documentation of MES software. In this paper, the
authors present the formal basis of the modeling language and its core
notation. The application of MES-ML is demonstrated taking a yogurt production
as an example. Finally, the authors give some evaluation results that underline
the effectiveness and efficiency of this new modeling approach with reference
to four applications in industrial MES-projects in the domain of discrete and
hybrid manufacturing.
