Manufacturing process management software is a term that sits a little apart from ERP and MES, and manufacturers reasonably ask what it covers and whether they need it as a separate thing. This piece explains what manufacturing process management software is and how it relates to the systems a manufacturer already runs.
What it means
Manufacturing process management is the discipline of defining, standardising, controlling, and improving the processes by which a manufacturer makes things. The "process" here does not mean process manufacturing as opposed to discrete; it means the methods, the way work is done. Manufacturing process management software is software that supports that discipline: capturing how a process is meant to run, making sure it runs that way consistently, and providing the basis to improve it.
What the software does
In practice, manufacturing process management software tends to cover a recognisable set of functions:
- Process definition, capturing how a product is to be made: the operations, the sequence, the work instructions, the standards and parameters that apply at each step.
- Standardisation, making sure the defined process is the process actually used, on every shift and at every site, rather than each team running its own informal version.
- Control, ensuring the process stays within its intended parameters and flagging when it does not.
- A basis for improvement, holding a clear record of how a process currently runs, which is the prerequisite for improving it deliberately rather than by guesswork.
How it relates to ERP and MES
The honest point a manufacturer needs is that "manufacturing process management software" is rarely a separate purchase, because much of what it describes already lives in the systems a manufacturer runs. A manufacturing ERP defines processes through routings and work instructions, the operations, the sequence, the standards, and standardises them by making every work order run against the same definition. An MES, where one is present, controls and tracks the process in real time on the floor. Between a manufacturing ERP and, where justified, an MES, most of manufacturing process management is already covered.
So the practical question is usually not "which process management product should I buy" but "am I using the process definition and standardisation already in my ERP". Many manufacturers own that capability and underuse it: routings are vague, work instructions are out of date, and the process in the system is not the process on the floor. Fixing that is process management, and it needs no new software.
When a dedicated tool makes sense
A dedicated manufacturing process management tool can be justified where a manufacturer has demands beyond what its ERP routings express well, very detailed, visual, step-by-step work instructions, tight process-parameter control, or formal continuous-improvement workflows it wants to manage explicitly. In those cases a specialist tool, integrated with the ERP, adds something real. The test is whether the ERP genuinely cannot express what the operation needs, not whether a separate tool exists.
The takeaway
Manufacturing process management software supports defining, standardising, controlling, and improving how things are made. Before treating it as a separate purchase, a manufacturer should recognise that its ERP routings and work instructions, and its MES if it has one, already deliver most of this. The first move is usually to use that capability properly. For how we approach manufacturing processes, see our manufacturing work.