The most common types of production systems used by life sciences manufacturers today are either paper based, digitized but disconnected, or legacy manufacturing execution systems (MES). Paper-based systems are no longer practical for modern manufacturers. Manufacturing organizations that rely on multiple point solutions to digitize production processes still contend with disconnected systems, standalone spreadsheets, and scanned documents. Meanwhile, the costs and complexities of traditional MES software make it unfeasible in most production environments. As manufacturing becomes more data-driven and flexible, these production systems are increasingly unsustainable.

In data-driven manufacturing environments, production systems empower organizations to unlock the power of their data and remove the inefficiencies of disconnected data. The future of manufacturing execution is a data-first approach to information, systems, people, and processes – where electronic batch records (EBRs) or electronic device history records (eDHRs), training documents, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and more are quickly and cost-effectively digitized under one platform.