FactoryFour vs AVEVA MES

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Our analysts compared FactoryFour vs AVEVA MES based on data from our 400+ point analysis of MES Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

AVEVA MES Software Tool

Product Basics

FactoryFour is a cloud-based system designed to configure and analyze operations and scale production. It identifies bottlenecks across processes and balances resources throughout work centers for optimum resource utilization. It maintains a master schedule visible to project managers, operators and salespeople to simplify communication.

Real-time alerting helps users respond quickly to production issues and alerts key stakeholders through customized emails or SMSs. It ensures operators’ productivity with responsive, Kanban-style dashboards.
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Aveva MES is a process-based solution for automated production and fast-moving goods manufacturing. It uses a model-driven approach to standardize production processes. Users can adapt processes, increase productivity and quality across multiple sites.

Digital operations management allows users to standardize and sync labor and equipment costs. It utilizes real-time data collection from operations and digitally managed workflows to boost productivity and compliance.
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$45 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$350 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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24/7 Live Support
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Gain Visibility: Gain real-time visibility into production processes through visual dashboards. It helps to identify and resolve issues quickly to ensure smooth performance. 
  • Optimize Operations: Identify the root cause of problems, create alerts to resolve issues and analyze production bottlenecks to optimize operations. 
  • Enable Accurate Costing: Get an accurate picture of total costs, including labor utilization to make pricing, production and investment decisions. 
  • Obtain Marginal Costs: Price products and services precisely by gauging every component of production processes to derive marginal costs. 
  • Simplify Communication: Simplify communication across salespeople, project managers and operators with the aid of a master schedule. It facilitates collaboration and mitigates errors. 
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  • Increased Efficiency: AVEVA MES streamlines manufacturing operations, reducing the time and resources needed for production processes. This leads to a more efficient use of materials and labor, maximizing output with minimal waste.
  • Enhanced Quality Control: The software provides tools for monitoring and controlling product quality in real-time, ensuring that manufacturing standards are met consistently. This reduces the risk of defects and improves customer satisfaction.
  • Real-Time Data Access: AVEVA MES offers immediate access to critical production data, enabling managers and operators to make informed decisions quickly. This agility can significantly impact response times to production issues or market demands.
  • Scalability: The software is designed to grow with your business, supporting expansion and adaptation without the need for significant overhauls. This makes it a long-term solution that can evolve with your manufacturing needs.
  • Cost Reduction: By optimizing production processes and reducing waste, AVEVA MES helps lower operational costs. These savings can then be redirected towards innovation, expansion, or improving profit margins.
  • Compliance Management: It simplifies compliance with industry standards and regulations by providing tools for tracking, documenting, and reporting processes. This is crucial for industries where compliance is non-negotiable, such as pharmaceuticals and food and beverage.
  • Improved Decision Making: With comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities, AVEVA MES turns data into actionable insights. This supports better strategic planning and decision-making, aligning operations with business objectives.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: The platform facilitates communication and collaboration across departments, breaking down silos and ensuring that everyone is aligned with the production goals and schedules. This unity is key to driving overall business performance.
  • Reduced Downtime: AVEVA MES helps predict and prevent equipment failures, minimizing unplanned downtime. This not only saves costs but also ensures that production targets are met consistently.
  • Customization and Flexibility: The software offers a high degree of customization, allowing it to be tailored to the specific needs of your manufacturing processes. This flexibility ensures that it remains relevant and effective as those needs change over time.
  • Energy Efficiency: By optimizing production schedules and machinery use, AVEVA MES can contribute to lower energy consumption. This not only reduces costs but also supports sustainability goals.
  • Supply Chain Integration: The software can be integrated with supply chain management systems, providing a holistic view of both production and supply chain operations. This integration helps in better inventory management, forecasting, and planning.
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  • Automation: Implement custom scheduling logic for order data and notify relevant stakeholders when the due date changes on production plans. 
  • Data Capture: Customize workflows to display standard operating procedures for the current task and prompt operators for quality data like key metrics or videos. 
  • Real-Time Alerts: Send customized email or SMS notifications to alert stakeholders about shop floor errors. 
  • Incident Handling: Enforce corrective action plans for anticipated or recurring production incidents to identify non-conformances quickly. 
  • Kanban-Style Dashboards: Create responsive kanban-style dashboards and customize task prioritization logic to ensure operators’ productivity and alignment with business priorities. 
  • Operator-Centric Interface: Boost operators’ efficiency and productivity with a unified interface for order information, work instructions, time-tracking and data capture. 
  • Work Instructions: Provide task-specific instructions and standard operating procedures and display the latest documentation to reduce errors. 
  • Traceability: Record production, quality and material events to simplify auditing and root cause analysis. Review order history with event logs throughout the application. 
  • Lean Principles: Customize task prioritization logic to align with business objectives and keep operators productive and prioritized. Operators can pull work orders from the top of prioritized backlogs. 
  • Resource Utilization: Leverage capacity planning to maximize resource utilization. Identify under-resourced work centers and move flexible resources to balance capacity and increase order throughput. 
  • Distribution: Maintain a master schedule visible to project managers, operators and salespeople to simplify communication. Update backlogs to inform operators about the latest priorities. 
  • Monitor Schedule Achievement: Monitor in-process order updates live from the floor, mitigating the need for daily progress updates. 
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  • Track and Trace: Utilize real-time inventory tracking and automatic electronic record keeping for complete product history and material traceability. 
  • Production Management: Set and define digital business rules for work orders. Track manual and automated equipment job execution. 
  • ERP Integration: Optimize information flow between shop floor and business operations. Schedule with flexibility and increase visibility into the supply chain. 
  • Quality Control: Automate quality checks and data collection. Align with work order live statuses and respond to changes in the shopfloor for variance reduction. 
  • Productivity Management: Create digitized workflows with a work process and user experience modeling approach. Automate production processes and eliminate paperwork. 
  • Analysis: Access manufacturing historical data and utilize drill-down analyses. 
  • BOM and Recipe Management: Improve consistency and minimize product-related loss by creating and enforcing process and product guidelines. 
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Product Ranking

#15

among all
MES Software

#38

among all
MES Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

54
59
27
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73
67
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72
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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

FactoryFour
AVEVA MES
+ Add Product + Add Product
Mobile Product And Parts Tracking Production Definition And Monitoring Production Dispatch And Execution Quality Management Reports And Dashboards Resources Management 27 73 55 94 49 76 65 28 67 72 84 51 59 37 0 25 50 75 100
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15%
100%
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71%
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67%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

8%
8%
84%
8%
75%
17%

User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 12 reviews
Great User Sentiment 27 reviews
98%
of users recommend this product

FactoryFour has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 98% when considering 12 user reviews from 1 recognized software review sites.

84%
of users recommend this product

AVEVA MES has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 27 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.9 (12)
n/a
n/a
4.2 (25)
n/a
4.1 (2)

Awards

FactoryFour stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Improved Visibility: Users appreciate the real-time insights into their shop floor operations, enabling them to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement.
Enhanced Traceability: The platform's ability to track materials, production processes, and quality metrics provides valuable data for audits and continuous improvement initiatives.
Increased Efficiency: FactoryFour streamlines workflows, automates tasks, and reduces manual data entry, leading to increased productivity and reduced operational costs.
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Reduced Downtime: AVEVA MES helps to minimize downtime by providing real-time insights into production processes, enabling proactive maintenance and quicker response to issues.
Improved Quality: The system facilitates adherence to quality standards by offering tools for quality data capture, analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.
Enhanced Visibility: AVEVA MES delivers comprehensive visibility into production operations, empowering data-driven decision-making and optimization efforts.
Increased Efficiency: The platform helps to streamline production processes, optimize resource allocation, and reduce waste, leading to enhanced overall efficiency.
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Difficult to Use: Some users have reported that FactoryFour is not user-friendly and requires extensive training to use effectively. This can be a major drawback for companies that need a system that is easy to learn and use.
Limited Customization: FactoryFour is not as customizable as some other MES solutions. This can be a problem for companies with unique manufacturing processes that require a tailored system.
Integration Challenges: Integrating FactoryFour with existing systems can be challenging. This can lead to data silos and make it difficult to get a complete picture of the manufacturing process.
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Steep Learning Curve: AVEVA MES has a complex interface and intricate workflows, making it challenging for new users to learn and adopt effectively. The system's extensive customization options can also contribute to the complexity, requiring significant training and experience to master.
Integration Challenges: Integrating AVEVA MES with existing enterprise systems, such as ERP or PLM software, can be a complex and time-consuming process. This can lead to data silos and hinder seamless information flow across the organization.
Customization Complexity: While AVEVA MES offers a high degree of customization, this can also be a drawback. Extensive customizations can make the system more difficult to maintain and upgrade, potentially leading to higher support costs and longer implementation timelines.
Resource-Intensive: AVEVA MES can be resource-intensive, requiring significant hardware and software infrastructure to run effectively. This can result in higher upfront and ongoing costs for organizations, especially those with limited IT budgets.
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Is your manufacturing execution system stuck in the dark ages? If so, FactoryFour might be the beacon of light you've been searching for. Over the past year, users have consistently praised FactoryFour for its intuitive interface, which stands in stark contrast to the clunky, cumbersome interfaces of many competitors. One user even compared switching to FactoryFour to "trading in a rusty wrench for a state-of-the-art toolbox." This ease of use has been particularly valuable for smaller businesses with limited IT resources, allowing them to quickly implement and utilize the software without extensive training or support. However, some users have expressed concerns about FactoryFour's limited customization options. While the software's out-of-the-box functionality is robust, tailoring it to meet very specific or unique manufacturing processes can be challenging. This lack of flexibility could be a dealbreaker for larger enterprises with complex, highly customized workflows. Ultimately, FactoryFour seems best suited for small to mid-sized businesses seeking a user-friendly, streamlined solution to manage their manufacturing operations. Its intuitive design and affordability make it a compelling choice for those looking to dip their toes into the world of MES without getting bogged down by complexity.

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AVEVA MES has been making waves in the manufacturing sector, but what are users saying about it? Let's dive into the feedback from the past year to get a clearer picture. Users consistently highlight the software's user-friendly interface and adaptability as major advantages. They appreciate how AVEVA MES provides a comprehensive view of production data, enabling them to pinpoint and address issues promptly, ultimately boosting efficiency. The software's ability to scale and adapt to the specific needs of diverse businesses has also received praise. For instance, a food and beverage company found that AVEVA MES significantly improved their production tracking and management, while an automotive manufacturer valued the software's customizability to their unique processes. This flexibility is crucial in today's dynamic manufacturing environment, where businesses need to respond quickly to changing demands. However, some users have mentioned that the initial setup and configuration of AVEVA MES can be complex, requiring careful planning and potentially additional support. It's important to note that this feedback often comes from larger organizations with more intricate manufacturing processes. Overall, AVEVA MES appears to be an excellent fit for manufacturers of all sizes seeking to enhance their operational efficiency, product quality, and regulatory compliance. Its adaptability and scalability make it particularly well-suited for industries with evolving production needs, such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and automotive manufacturing. While the initial setup may require some effort, the long-term benefits in terms of streamlined operations and improved decision-making make it a worthwhile investment.

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