As the global push toward renewable energy accelerates, manufacturers in the sector face mounting pressure to scale production while maintaining operational excellence. Reliability, consistency, and efficiency are no longer just operational goals, they are strategic imperatives.
For a division of a multinational American conglomerate specializing in renewable energy, this challenge was especially acute. Established in the 19th century and now employing more than 80,000 people worldwide, the company plays a critical role in global power generation, contributing to approximately 30% of the world’s electricity. Its manufacturing operations span dozens of factories across regions, time zones, and regulatory environments, each with unique operational requirements.
As the organization expanded, it became increasingly clear that its existing manufacturing execution systems were struggling to keep pace with the scale and complexity of its operations.
When Standard MES Platforms Become a Constraint
The manufacturer had long relied on a traditional Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and supporting systems to manage production. While these platforms provided core functionality, they were designed as bundled, one-size-fits-all solutions. This approach introduced significant friction as operations scaled globally.
Maintenance costs continued to rise, driven by bundled features that were expensive to support but rarely used. Expanding the system consistently across factories proved difficult, with each new deployment requiring significant customization and manual effort. Most critically, the rigidity of the platform limited the organization’s ability to adapt processes, integrate new capabilities, or respond quickly to operational changes.
At the same time, machine failures across facilities triggered costly production delays. These delays were often compounded by communication challenges across different geographies, time zones, and languages, making it difficult to diagnose issues quickly or coordinate effective responses. Data existed, but it was fragmented—spread across machines, systems, and sites—limiting its usefulness for optimization and decision-making.
Rather than enabling efficiency, the MES had become a bottleneck. The organization needed a more scalable approach, one that could support global consistency without sacrificing local adaptability.
Rethinking MES as a Digital Foundation
To address these challenges, the manufacturer partnered with FPT to rethink its manufacturing execution environment from the ground up.
Instead of replacing the existing system with another monolithic platform, the team designed a customizable, cloud-based MES architecture that could evolve incrementally. The approach focused on starting with essential capabilities and expanding based on proven operational needs to reduce risk while maximizing long-term flexibility.
At the core of the solution was a Unified Data Platform (UDP) that connected shop-floor machines regardless of brand or model and served as a single source of truth for manufacturing data. By leveraging horizontal applications and a microservices-based architecture, the platform enabled modular customization while maintaining consistency across factories.
Built on AWS and powered by services such as Amazon EKS, Amazon IoT Core, AWS Kinesis Data Firehose, AWS Glue, and DynamoDB, the solution delivered near-real-time data ingestion, monitoring, and analytics at scale. Production teams could access insights remotely from desktops, tablets, or mobile devices while leadership gained visibility across global operations.
From Visibility to Measurable Operational Gains
The impact of the transformation extended well beyond technical modernization.
Across 16 factories with more than 500 machines and 250 users, the company saw a 12% improvement in data collection success rates, dramatically increasing the reliability and usability of production data. Equipment availability improved by 11%, helping reduce delays caused by unexpected machine downtime and improving overall throughput.
Just as importantly, the new MES environment changed how teams worked. Production managers gained live insight into operations, enabling faster adjustments and more proactive issue resolution. Labor assignment and work order management moved from manual, periodic processes to automated, data-driven workflows. The system aligned closely with the organization’s Factory Lean Line Certification roadmap, supporting continuous improvement against industry-leading standards.
The platform was deployed in phases, with each go-live completed in four to six months and no critical incidents recorded, even throughout global disruptions such as COVID. As confidence grew, the solution expanded to additional factories worldwide, supported by a stable and scalable cloud foundation.
Enabling the Next Chapter of Industrial Transformation
Beyond immediate efficiency gains, the MES transformation established a future-ready digital backbone for the organization.
With centralized, high-quality data and flexible architecture in place, the manufacturer is now positioned to pursue AI-driven optimization across its production network. Resource usage can be analyzed more precisely, supporting sustainability objectives and ESG commitments. Operational leaders can spot performance deviations earlier, understand root causes more quickly, and drive continuous improvement with greater confidence.
For manufacturers operating at a global scale, particularly in energy and renewables, this shift represents more than a system upgrade. It is a move toward resilient, intelligent operations capable of adapting to evolving market demands and technological change.
By reimagining MES as a flexible digital foundation rather than a static system, this renewable energy leader has taken a critical step toward operational excellence at scale.
