MES RECIPE MANAGEMENT
In today's world of highly regulated industries, it is crucial to have efficient and flexible manufacturing processes that meet high-quality standards in order to remain competitive. Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) tackle this challenge by digitalizing the manufacturing value chain from the receipt of raw materials to the production of finished goods. MES can provide significant benefits such as process efficiency, traceability, quality control, real-time data analytics or review by exception. However, it is important to note that the success of an MES implementation depends heavily on the way it is set up to fit the specific needs and processes of a manufacturing unit. This is where MES recipes come in – they reflect the local business processes and are the heart of the implementation. Moreover, recipes are crucial from a compliance perspective as they define the batch record content. Whether at the beginning of an implementation project or during ongoing operations, optimizing the MES recipes to fit the local site's needs is essential to fully leveraging its potential.
There is a common misconception that recipe management is only about configuring and maintaining pre-defined system functionalities. In fact, this is only a small fraction of the overall scope. The following visualization illustrates the main disciplines of comprehensive recipe management.
The way recipes are managed can have a significant impact on your organization. It's a key driver for the success of your MES implementation project and recurrently a reason for failure. In operations, recipe management highly influences maintenance cost and determines your degree of flexibility.
For instance, consider the creation of generic recipe templates: You could design highly generic recipe templates covering many or even all your product groups. However, complexity increases with every new branch, and at some point, the recipe becomes unmanageable. On the other hand, you could create dedicated recipes for each and every product, but this would make it harder to harmonize and result in high-effort changes impacting a massive number of recipes.
Where do you draw the line? The assessment needs to be done case by case. MES Recipe Consulting could help you with that, providing "do's and don'ts" based on previous project expereince.
MES Recipe Consulting GmbH == {SafeChoiceForYourMESProject}
MES Recipe Consulting offers the full service set of recipe management disciplines as described above. In addition, project management activities, strategic assessments, project reviews, 1st-level support, hypercare after go live and other tasks related to the MES lifecycle are self-evident to be included into the service package as well.
But why should you choose MES Recipe Consulting as your preferred service partner? The answer is quite simple:
MES Recipe Consulting provides a unique combination of system knowledge, business process experience and methodology techniques.
While engaging pure system experts who know every source code line of their MES might seem like an option, it does not guarantee that they have the required business process experience and ability to consult on the most efficient course of action beyond the technical details. Some system experts tend to "overcomplicate" recipe design, resulting in a highly customized system because they have the technical ability to do so. In the long run, it's preferred for businesses to stick to standard functionalities, challenge business requirements leading to tremendous customization efforts, and find ways to fulfill the business needs with lean recipe design.
On the other side, process consultants might bring new perspectives to your current production processes but when it comes to the MES implementation, it is of substantial importance to know the system functionalities as well since they are the guardrails of the future MES process.
MES Recipe Consulting offers lead recipe designers covering all three fields of expertise. The company is convinced that only the combination of these competence areas will result in effective and efficient recipe management.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
ANTON SCHERER
Founder: MES Recipe Consulting GmbH and MES Recipe Consulting Deutschland GmbH
MES Lead Consultant
Anton Scherer began his MES career in 2016 as a consultant, after obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Business Informatics and a Master's degree in Software Engineering. In his initial client projects for F. Hoffmann-La Roche, he worked on a process analysis for the definition of to-be MES processes and, in addition, gained experience in recipe design and 1st-level MES support. In 2018, Anton joined Roche and he evolved into a technical lead recipe author at the local site of Kaiseraugst. He played a crucial role in the successful deployment of a new Core system and subsequently took on the responsibility of MES operations support, leading a team of four recipe designers. During this time, Anton also engaged in global activities, such as contributing to a global business process harmonization project and establishing a network of recipe designers across various Roche sites for knowledge exchange, best practices sharing and functional change request alignment. In 2022, Anton was promoted to Global Recipe Squad Lead, building up a global team in order to develop global concepts, recipe authoring guidelines and common Core recipe building blocks. In 2023, he founded MES Recipe Consulting GmbH. In addition, Anton obtained the latest SAFe© (Scaled Agile Framework) Scrum Master certification (6.0).
ARIANE MÜLLER
Founder: MES Recipe Consulting Deutschland GmbH
MES Senior Consultant
Ariane Müller began her career in 2014 with an apprenticeship as an IT System Engineer which laid a solid foundation for her future in the IT industry. Over the following four years, she gained extensive experience in various IT roles, developing her technical skills and understanding of systems integration. In 2019, Ariane moved into the pharmaceutical industry, taking on the role of IT and MES Administrator at Develco Pharma GmbH. This marked a significant turning point in her career, allowing her to apply her IT expertise in a highly regulated and influential industry. While working at Develco Pharma, Ariane also started a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. In 2022, Ariane accepted a new challenge as a Consultant Data Intelligence at Peleven GmbH. In this role, she worked with several well-known pharmaceutical companies, including Thermo Fisher Scientific. As a SME in the areas of automation, IT and MES, Ariane contributed to various projects, focusing on concept-/basic-/detail design. Last but not least, Ariane took on a project at Roche, where her work focused on Recipe Design. In 2024, Ariane founded MES Recipe Consulting Deutschland GmbH together with Anton and Michael.
MICHAEL WIRTZ
Founder: MES Recipe Consulting Deutschland GmbH
Senior Consultant Business Development
With two decades of experience at Roche, Michael has gained extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry and its intricate processes. His deep understanding of both business operations and production workflows uniquely positions him to contribute effectively to his current role as Business Developer within the company. His core competencies include the design of production processes in the form of electronic recipes and workflows in the MES PharmaSuite Core System. He excels in developing Process Requirements Specifications (PRS) in close collaboration with relevant departments, ensuring that requirements are clarified with precision. Another key aspect of his work involves advising on the system setup of the Rockwell MES System. In this capacity, he integrates business requirements in cooperation with IT, ensuring alignment between operational needs and technological capabilities. Michael’s project experience encompasses the successful implementation of MES systems across various departments, as well as leading teams in both IT and production. His comprehensive background enables him to navigate complex challenges and drive efficiency within the organization.
GET IN TOUCH
MES Recipe Consulting GmbH
MES Recipe Consulting Deutschland GmbH
+ 41 76 422 4910
