Last Updated
Overview
Critical Manufacturing MES is a modern, modular manufacturing execution system that accelerates Industry 4.0 adoption in high-tech sectors. It provides extensive functionality and scalability, though implementation demands a significant upfront investment. The platform delivers real-time process control and complete end-to-end traceability.
Critical Manufacturing Specifications
- Bill Of Materials (BOM)
- Real-Time Monitoring
- Shop Floor Control
- Equipment Maintenance
What Is Critical Manufacturing?
Critical Manufacturing MES (CM MES) is a state-of-the-art manufacturing execution system designed specifically for highly regulated and complex discrete manufacturing industries, including semiconductors, medical devices, and electronics. It serves as the digital backbone of the smart factory, bridging the gap between Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and shop-floor control. The CM MES is built on a modern, flexible framework that provides extensive modular functionality to digitalize operations and ensure full product genealogy and compliance.
Critical Manufacturing Pricing
Critical Manufacturing pricing is customized and based on user needs and requirements.
Critical Manufacturing Integrations
Critical Manufacturing MES integrates high-level enterprise systems like ERP and PLM via its Enterprise Integration module and connects to the shop floor using the Connect IoT module. This allows for bi-directional data exchange with equipment via industrial protocols such as SECS/GEM, OPC-UA, and MQTT, enabling real-time automation for Industry 4.0.
Who Is Critical Manufacturing For?
Critical Manufacturing MES is essential for complex, high-mix, high-volume, and heavily regulated manufacturing environments across several advanced industries:
- Semiconductor manufacturing
- Medical device manufacturing
- Electronics manufacturing
- Industrial equipment manufacturing
- Aerospace and defense
- Corporate quality and compliance departments
Is Critical Manufacturing Right For You?
Critical Manufacturing MES is strategically suited for organizations committed to Industry 4.0 digital transformation who require a robust, flexible, and future-proof platform. It stands out due to its modular design and deep domain expertise in regulated industries, where product genealogy and traceability are non-negotiable mandates. The system is built on the Microsoft technology stack, ensuring enhanced security and scalability. Its ability to provide real-time, augmented visibility across the entire plant makes it a powerful decision-support tool.
Still not sure about Critical Manufacturing? Contact our support team at (661) 384-7070 for further guidance.
Critical Manufacturing Features
Critical Manufacturing Framework
Built on modern, production-ready architectures, the Framework ensures low total cost of ownership (TCO), agility, scalability, and reliability. Critical Manufacturing features a three-tier architecture (presentation, business services, data, and analytics) and supports customization, modular extension, and high-availability deployment across hardware and container environments.
MES Investment And ROI
This section explains how MES investments yield return across four key benefit categories: quality, productivity, regulatory compliance, and agility. It guides manufacturers to build business cases, calculate cost savings via yield improvement, automation, reduced cycle time, and compliance enforcement, and to assess infrastructure, licensing, and service costs for ROI.
Factory Automation
Factory automation supports the orchestration of equipment and systems via workflow engines that respond to factory events. It enables graphical workflow design, job hierarchies, long-running jobs, error recovery, and equipment integration via IoT/Connect IoT drivers, facilitating high-automation manufacturing environments.
Material Logistics
The material logistics module enables defining supply paths from storage to production, managing transfer requirements, pick lists, and replenishment, periodic inventories, and automated selection rules. It improves visibility of material requests, reduces shortages, and raw-material inventory waste, streamlining logistics across production lines.
MES Migration
This module supports migration of legacy MES systems, enabling phased deployment of new MES across sites, integration with existing infrastructure, and scalable rollouts. It helps manufacturers minimize disruption, leverage existing data, and upgrade toward Industry 4.0 without full rip-and-replace transitions.
Pros And Cons of Critical Manufacturing
Pros
Scalable, reliable, and available with high uptime
Web-based GUI is sleek and relatively user-friendly
Highly flexible, configurable, and customizable
Cons
Report development is often painful and unintuitive (SQL needed)
No native step ID for process/checklist steps in the system
Critical Manufacturing Reviews
Total 3 reviews
3.7
All reviews are from verified customers
Rating Distribution
5
Stars33%
4
Stars0%
3
Stars67%
2
Stars0%
1
Stars0%
Share your experience
Anonymous
Healthcare and Biotech, N/A employees
“very frustrating reporting process”
Pros
Some of the features that I really like are the task assignment feature as well as the layout of the notifiication panel. Task assignment lets you send certain task types to specific users. The way you move through workstations and resources is also well designed since you can create a layered folder structure like Site, Area, Line and Station to drill down to exactly where work needs to start.
Cons
It felt far less flexible than you would expect from a platform that presents itself as highly customizable. A clear example is the complete lack of a STEP ID for process or checklist steps. If your existing records use numbering like 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.1 or even 10/20/30, the system has no native field or identifier to handle that. When steps need to be reordered or removed later, it turns into a long and frustrating process. You cant just change or delete one step because then you have to manually rename everything else as well. It is definitely not a simple drag and drop setup and the system does not manage that tracking for you. On top of that there is no way to start an NCMR or deviation directly at the exact production record step where the issue happened. You can open one separately and reference the general step in the record but there is no built in way to stop users from continuing through the same checklist. Reporting development is another weak point because its such a pain and not an easy process at all. Only way to make it all easier is to have someone available who knows SQL database administration.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
7
Value for money
7
Customer Support
7
Functionality
6
John
Manufacturing, N/A employees
“Fast responsive updates”
Pros
The setup didn't take long at all and updates when they come are installed really quickly too.
Cons
There's a small issue with one integration involving another partner but we found an alternative way to accomplish what we need so it hasn't blocked our progress.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
10
Value for money
9
Customer Support
10
Functionality
8
Anonymous
Manufacturing, N/A employees
“Configurable gui but complicated installation process”
Pros
Interface is user friendly and the product offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to configuration and customization.
Cons
Project management, communication and documentation were lacking. During installation, we ran into several delays tied to our customizations because only the first team member knew how to handle certain issues and there was no documentation explaining the decisions made or the trade-offs behind them. At this point, we're also dealing with reporting issues caused by too much customization.
Rating Distribution
Ease of use
6
Value for money
7
Customer Support
6
Functionality
6
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Critical Manufacturing have a mobile app?
No Critical Manufacturing does not offer a mobile app.
What level of support does Critical Manufacturing offer?
The company offers customer support backed by experts who understand the full MES environment, including ongoing software maintenance and dedicated training programs.
What types of pricing plans does Critical Manufacturing offer?
Critical Manufacturing pricing is customized based on each client’s specific needs and requirements. Request a personalized Critical Manufacturing cost quote today to find the best solution for your organization.
What other apps does Critical Manufacturing integrate with?
Critical Manufacturing MES integrates seamlessly with enterprise systems such as ERP and PLM through its Enterprise Integration module and connects to shop-floor equipment via the Connect IoT module. It supports industrial protocols like SECS/GEM, OPC-UA, and MQTT, enabling real-time data exchange and automation for Industry 4.0 environments.
Who are the typical users of Critical Manufacturing?
Critical Manufacturing MES serves industries such as semiconductors, medical devices, electronics, industrial equipment, and aerospace and defense manufacturing, as well as corporate quality and compliance departments.
What language does Critical Manufacturing support?
Critical Manufacturing is available in English, Dutch, and Chinese.
Does Critical Manufacturing offer an API?
Yes, Critical Manufacturing software offers an API.