Engineering Workflow Management Systems

Goals are just wishful thinking without Systems – It is Systems which really determine your Success James Clear the reputed expert on Habits says ““You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” While goals inspire, it is your daily systems and habits that lead to outcome. Clear says if you wish to make lasting changes in your life, do not depend just on willpower or motivation. Concentrate on building better systems that support the change. Most ambitious professionals chase goals like distant mirages, exhausting themselves without real progress. There are many who spend 60-hour weeks hustling, thinking pure effort would catapult them to leadership. Instead, they may burn out, stuck in the same position year after year. The game-changer? Building deliberate and robust systems. Think of your career like a precision machine. Goals are the destination, but systems are the engine. It's not about working harder, but creating repeatable processes that compound your efforts. For one of my coachees, that meant designing a 30-minute morning routine: strategic networking, skill development, and reflective planning. These micro-actions gradually reshaped his professional trajectory. Your systems protect you from the real enemy: random, unfocused effort that leads nowhere. A key step you need to take is not just define the outcome with the metrics linked to your goal, but also define the sub-steps with process metrics that measure your progress. For instance, if your outcome is to secure a director-level role in 18 months, you need to break it down to intermediate steps with process metrics: Strategic visibility: Lead 2 cross-functional strategic initiatives with measurable business impact: - Leadership skill development: Attend advanced leadership training - Network expansion: Build strategic relationships with 15 senior leaders across the industry - Thought leadership: Publish 3 industry-recognized articles or present at reputed conferences Start today. Choose one daily 30-minute block and design a system around building a specific professional skill and connection strategy. Watch as consistent, small actions transform your career landscape. #LifeCoach #CareerCoach #Leadership

Ever wonder why systems matter so much? 🤔 Last evening, I had a fantastic conversation with Amit Dubey 👨💻 about the power of systems in organizations. We shared insights from our experiences and landed on one universal truth: "People fail, but well designed and implemented systems don’t." It got me reflecting on how even the most dedicated teams can struggle without the right processes in place. Strong systems are the backbone of every successful organization—they ensure consistency, scalability, and efficiency. Take the emergency care unit of a chain of hospitals as an example. If their SOPs for emergency care ensure every second counts, saving lives through well-defined steps that eliminate confusion, even in high-pressure situations. Their system isn’t just efficient—it’s life-saving. With this they are able to train all the stakeholders and it will not be completely person dependent, everyone in the team will know their responsibilities and work will be much smoother and efficient!! Here are some tried and tested tips that can help in getting started: 👉 Start with clarity. Define the purpose of the system. What problem is it solving? Involve the team to ensure everyone’s aligned on the goals. 👉 Map out every step. Document the process from start to finish. Break it into small, actionable tasks. The goal is to make it easy to follow for anyone, anytime. 👉 Focus on scalability. Build systems that can adapt as your team or organization grows. Think long-term and avoid overly complex solutions that only work on a small scale. 👉 Automate where possible. Leverage technology to minimize manual errors and save time. Whether it’s using software for task management or AI tools for decision-making, automation adds precision. 👉 Test, refine, repeat. No system is perfect from the start. Test it in real scenarios, gather feedback, and keep improving. Flexibility is key. One very powerful thought came forward during our conversation, "Great systems empower people to focus on their strengths by eliminating unnecessary roadblocks." While I’m still growing in my professional journey, one thing I’ve learned is this: "building systems isn’t about controlling people—it’s about enabling them to succeed" What about you? Does your organization have systems that make life easier, or are you still relying on improvisation? ~ ✍️ Share your experiences or insights in the comments. 📌 Reshare if this resonates with you! Follow Dr Nidhhi Nagar for more such conversations #ManagementConsulting #OperationalExcellence #Leadership #HealthcareManagement #SOPsMatter #Efficiency #LearnAndGrow #AddingValue #Networking #ScalableSolutions #linkedincreators

🌐 Unveiling the Integration Touchpoints of MES and ERP in Industry 4.0 In the swiftly evolving landscape of Industry 4.0, the integration of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is pivotal. Let's explore the key touchpoints where these systems converge to drive manufacturing excellence. 🔗 Key Integration Touchpoints: - Data Flow and Accessibility: Seamless data exchange between MES and ERP is crucial. MES captures real-time shop floor data, feeding it into the ERP system for strategic planning and decision-making. - Production Planning and Scheduling: MES provides detailed, real-time production data that enhances the ERP's ability to plan, schedule, and manage resources more effectively, leading to optimized production cycles. - Inventory Management: Integration ensures synchronized inventory tracking. Real-time data from MES about material usage helps ERP systems manage inventory levels accurately, reducing overstock and shortages. - Quality Control and Compliance: MES monitors quality metrics on the production floor. This data is vital for ERP systems to ensure compliance with quality standards and regulatory requirements. - Maintenance and Downtime Management: MES tracks machine performance and maintenance needs, informing the ERP system for proactive maintenance scheduling, reducing unplanned downtime. - Order Tracking and Fulfillment: The integration allows for real-time tracking of order progress, enabling more accurate delivery forecasting and customer satisfaction. 🚀 The Impact: The synergy of MES and ERP systems creates a more responsive, efficient, and transparent manufacturing process. It bridges the gap between the operational and strategic layers of a business, enabling manufacturers to respond faster to market demands, improve production efficiency, and maintain high-quality standards. As we embrace Industry 4.0, understanding and leveraging these integration touchpoints is not just a competitive advantage; it's a necessity for any forward-thinking manufacturer. #Industry40 #MES #ERP #ManufacturingExcellence #DigitalTransformation

I’ve been leading SWE teams for over a decade now. As a Principal EM, I have one cardinal rule: The failures of my team are my failures. A strong engineering team doesn’t just happen, it’s built deliberately over time. To evaluate progress and level up, I focus on three core pillars that define a high-performing engineering team. Let’s break them down: 1. Delivering Value: The “Why” Behind the Work Your team exists to solve problems, ship features, and provide value. - Are we consistently delivering measurable results? - Are stakeholders confident in our output? - Does every sprint feel aligned with business goals? Value doesn’t mean just “shipping.” It means shipping the right things that move the needle for the business. 2. People Growth: Build for Today, Invest for Tomorrow Your team isn’t just delivering code, it’s a living system of people with potential. Ask yourself: - Are individuals engaged and growing? - Are we creating opportunities for junior engineers to step up? - Do team members feel empowered to share ideas and take ownership? High retention, strong morale, and skill growth are signs you’re on the right track. 3. Sustainable Quality: Long-Term Wins Over Short-Term Gains Shortcuts may feel tempting, but tech debt always comes knocking. - Are we balancing speed with quality? - Is technical debt under control? - Are we investing in processes and tools to sustain long-term success? The best teams create systems that grow with them, not against them. My role an Engineering Manager isn’t just to manage tasks. It’s to elevate the entire system—people, processes, and outcomes. When your team excels in all three pillars, you’re creating a high-performance team that can adapt, grow, and thrive. If you’re a developer, remember: Your work is more than just the lines of code you push. When you focus on delivering value, growing as a person, and maintaining quality, you’re not just leveling yourself up, you’re helping your entire team succeed. Keep asking questions. Keep learning. And most importantly, keep building.

Why ERP Master Data Alone Isn't Enough for MES Systems: In today's fast-paced manufacturing environment, the integration of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) is crucial for operational efficiency. However, relying solely on ERP master data for MES systems can lead to significant gaps and inefficiencies. Here's why: Granularity of Data: ERP systems are designed to manage high-level business processes and transactions. They lack the detailed, real-time data required for MES systems to monitor and control shop floor activities effectively. Real-Time Requirements: MES systems need real-time data to make immediate decisions and adjustments on the production floor. ERP systems, on the other hand, often operate on batch processing, which can delay critical information flow. Operational Specificity: MES systems require specific data related to production processes, equipment status, and quality control that ERP systems typically do not capture. This operational specificity is essential for optimizing manufacturing performance. Flexibility and Adaptability: Manufacturing environments are dynamic, with frequent changes in production schedules, equipment configurations, and process parameters. MES systems need flexible and adaptable data structures that can quickly respond to these changes, something ERP master data is not designed to handle. Integration Complexity: Integrating ERP and MES systems requires a seamless flow of data between the two. However, the data structures and formats in ERP systems are often not compatible with the needs of MES systems, leading to integration challenges and potential data inconsistencies. To achieve a truly integrated and efficient manufacturing operation, it's essential to recognize the limitations of ERP master data and invest in robust MES systems that can complement and enhance the capabilities of ERP systems. By doing so, manufacturers can ensure real-time visibility, control, and optimization of their production processes. #Manufacturing #ERP #MES #DataIntegration #OperationalEfficiency

Do these 3 things consistently well, and it'll be almost unavoidable to be promoted to Staff-Plus level 👇🏼 1️⃣ Blast Radius: Scope & Shape of your Impact There’s this idea that as a staff engineer, your impact should go beyond a single group or beyond a single project. There a competing idea that you should be technically excellent diving deep, solving any problem. A big mistake a lot of engineers make is that they go so deep on the technical expertise that they forget to think about the impact expectation for their role. Yes, technical depth is important. But your main focus should be working on things that impact the broader organization. Big impact might look like: fundamentally changing how things were done in a product or product line; or improving the revenue or cost structure or the customer experience of the broader company. Think big impact that goes far beyond just your team. 2️⃣ Multi-Scale Planning: Ability to Influence Many people talk about the importance of Big-Picture Thinking, emphasizing that staff engineers should focus on the next two to three quarters. Where a lot of engineers drop the ball on is understanding how those long term plans and visions translate into actionable steps. Highly effective staff engineers adeptly navigate different time horizons. Working with the structure of daily standups, weekly meetings, QBRs / Quarterly planning, etc. to ensure that visionary ideas are grounded in reality and are prioritized, implemented and delivered on time. They are not only thinking about the next few years of visionary ideas, but how they will work within the organizational structure/cadence to make those ideas a reality. As a staff engineer, it’s not just more projects, it’s also about more time context – learning how to jump between time contexts to ensure vision/goals/implementation all work together. 3️⃣ Ownership Level: Autonomy & Delivering Results We all start out our careers as implementers, and then move into solvers. A common mistake made by seniors is not going beyond being a Solver. They never transition into the “Finder” role, always coding, coding. The other common mistake is going into 100% Finder-mode and become untethered to the reality of actually resolving problems. It’s that “pie in the sky architects” we’ve all seen and avoided. The most effective Staff Engineers move back and forth between implementing, solving, finding and driving as needed. If there is no one to delegate tasks to, they take on the solver role. When implementation is necessary, they step in to execute on tasks. If a project is starting to go off the rails, they step in as a driver to help move it to successful completion. These are just a few excerpts from an article I worked on with Thiago Ghisi titled: “Breaking the Staff Engineer Ceiling.” Check out the full deep-dive here: https://lnkd.in/eaxyNsCH

MES/MOM Integration with ERP: Transforming Production & Financial Management In the fast world of manufacturing, efficiency, accuracy & real-time decision-making are paramount. Today, I delve into how MES/MOM & ERP integrate & benefit each other PRODUCTION SCHEDULING MES/MOM systems are the pulse of the shop floor, housing detailed production schedules, work orders & resource allocation information. When integrated with ERP, the magic happens: Data Sharing: Seamlessly exchange detailed production schedules & resource allocation information. ERP leverages this data for high-level planning, ensuring resources & optimally allocated, while MES/MOM uses ERP data for detailed shop floor scheduling, ensuring precision & efficiency Real-time Updates: Instant synchronization between systems means that changes in production schedules or resource allocations are reflected instantly, leaving no room for delays, overproduction, or underutilization of resources. It's the secret recipe for just-in-time production INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Accurate & up-to-date inventory information is crucial for streamlined operations. Here's how integration enhances inventory management Inventory Visibility: ERP maintains an organization's inventory records, while MES/MOM tracks real-time inventory levels on the shop floor. Integration ensures both systems have the latest information on materials, products & availability Demand Forecasting: ERP benefits from MES/MOM data to forecast material requirements more accurately, preventing stockouts or overstocking. Simultaneously, MES/MOM can understand the strategic inventory goals & objectives of the organization through ERP data, creating a win-win situation FINANCIAL DATA Managing costs, billing & financial planning is critical. The integration of MES/MOM with ERP takes it to the next level: Cost Tracking: The combination enables the tracking of costs at a granular level. MES/MOM captures real-time data on labor, materials & equipment usage, while ERP consolidates this data for cost analysis & management reporting, enhancing cost control Billing & Invoicing: Accurate data from MES/MOM, such as production volumes & resource utilization, is utilized by ERP for generating invoices. This minimizes errors, streamlining billing with actual production activities Budgeting: ERP is responsible for budgeting & financial planning. Through integration with MES/MOM, it gains access to detailed operational data, creating more precise budgets & forecasts. This alignment ensures financial plans are realistic & achievable, driving strategic decision-making In the evolving landscape of manufacturing, MES/MOM & ERP integration isn't just a buzzword; it's a force that drives efficiency, accuracy & financial success Are you ready to unlock the power of this integration for your organization? Let's connect & discuss how we can leverage these technologies to boost your manufacturing & financial performance Next: MES/MOM & MRP (the BOM etc..)

It sounds so simple and obvious that it borders on unhelpful: “Making sure information flows… If you have that in place, you’ll make good decisions. Make good decisions, you’re winning the game” But Benjamin's understanding of this dynamic runs deep. He’s served at almost every level of an engineering org and has bounced between management and IC work for years. Currently Staff at Snyk. In addition to the mindset stuff, Ben and I discussed several practical and specific ways to ensure information flows in our interview: 1) Pairing While balancing async and sync work is key, there’s nothing faster than realtime feedback, one of pairing’s many benefits. 2) Micro-retros after pairing sessions Quick feedback round about the meta of it all - how well did we work together on this? What could each of us done to make it more productive and enjoyable? 3) Speedbacks Once a quarter, everyone rotates through pairs where they swap between giving and receiving feedback, without space for reacting to the feedback in session. Normalizes the practice of giving / receiving feedback while churning up plenty to follow-up on. These are tried and true practices he’s been deploying for years, and we break each down in detail in the full interview for the Distributed podcast. It’s live on YT and all the podcast players - check it out and let me know what you think.

Last month I shared that the average age of controls engineers now stands at 54, with only 5 percent under the age of 30. Since then I have been having detailed conversations with both hiring managers and candidates, and the picture is clear. This is creating a perfect storm for automation departments across manufacturing, life sciences, and industrial sectors. One engineer I spoke with recently made a complete career pivot. He accepted a vocational teaching position after a retiring teacher called him directly, saying they needed someone to train the next generation. This reflects a growing trend of experienced engineers stepping into teaching and mentorship roles to address the knowledge transfer gap. Systems integrators are responding in kind. Rather than fighting over the shrinking pool of experienced engineers, many are ramping up training and mentorship. One integrator told me their training budget has increased by 40 percent year over year, with a focus on pairing senior engineers with graduates and early career hires. OEMs are also shifting. Companies that previously demanded 5+ years of experience are now more open to candidates with strong fundamentals and the right problem-solving instincts, trusting that technical skills like PLC programming can be taught. The most forward-thinking organizations are tackling this through multiple strategies: Creating formal knowledge transfer programs to capture the tacit expertise of senior engineers Partnering with community colleges and trade schools Establishing apprenticeships that blend classroom learning with hands-on project work Offering phased retirement to keep senior talent engaged as mentors Using technology to record and share institutional knowledge As the talent gap widens, companies that treat knowledge transfer as a strategic priority rather than an HR formality will gain an edge in reliability and innovation, it's going to be a long road, but this has got to be the foundation for the next generation, surely. What other solutions are there?