93% of manufacturers have MES, but only 23% have fully integrated it across the enterprise

Nearly every manufacturer in a new global survey has a manufacturing execution system running somewhere on the shop floor. Almost none have it working everywhere it needs to. That gap, according to a Rockwell Automation report published July 14, 2026, is now the central obstacle separating manufacturers who extract enterprise-wide value from their MES investments and those who do not.

The report, titled 'Scaling MES Across the Enterprise,' drew on responses from 1,560 manufacturing and industrial operations decision-makers across 17 countries, according to PR Newswire. It found that 93% of respondents have MES running in at least one facility. Only 28% have deployed it enterprise-wide, and just 23% report full integration across ERP, PLM, quality, and operational technology systems, per the same source.

Manufacturing Dive reporter Nathan Owens noted that MES platforms monitor, track, document, and control the conversion of raw materials into finished goods on the factory floor. That foundational role means the integration gap is not a software preference issue. It is a performance ceiling.

Integration is both the goal and the bottleneck

Rockwell's data makes the tension explicit. According to the PR Newswire release, 44% of manufacturers rank integration as their top MES buying requirement. At the same time, 33% cite MES as their biggest data integration problem, making it simultaneously the most-wanted feature and the most common frustration.

Lorenzo Veronesi, associate research director at IDC, described the stakes in comments cited by PR Newswire. Organizations that leave disconnected systems and underutilized data unaddressed risk leaving significant value on the table, he said, adding that integration ranks as both the top buying requirement and the leading modernization challenge simultaneously.

AI ambition is running ahead of data readiness

The integration problem has a direct consequence for AI deployments. Rockwell's report found that manufacturers expect 42% of processes to be AI-supported within the next year and 54% by 2030, per the PR Newswire release. Yet 43% of those same respondents acknowledge they are not effectively using the data they already collect, which is precisely the foundation AI requires.

That disconnect is a practical risk for operations teams building roadmaps around AI-driven quality control, predictive maintenance, or supply chain forecasting. Without consistent, integrated data flowing from MES into enterprise systems, even well-funded AI programs hit the same ceiling as the MES rollouts that preceded them.

Cybersecurity has become a baseline buying requirement

Security is no longer a secondary consideration in MES procurement. Rockwell's survey found that 46% of manufacturers experienced a cyber incident in the past year, according to PR Newswire. Security and compliance now rank as the second-highest MES buying requirement, cited by 43% of respondents, trailing only integration.

For procurement and IT operations teams evaluating or refreshing MES platforms, that ranking reflects a real shift in vendor conversations. Resilience and compliance capabilities are moving from optional line items to evaluation criteria that can knock a vendor off a shortlist.

What enterprise-wide deployment looks like in practice

Rockwell cited Kumi North America, a Tier 1 automotive supplier focused on injection-molded interior plastics and assemblies, as an example of multi-site MES scaling. The company first deployed Rockwell's Plex platform in 2008 and has since expanded it across facilities in the United States and Canada, most recently adding Plex MES Automation and Orchestration capabilities, according to PR Newswire.

Anthony Murphy, vice president of product management at Rockwell Automation, characterized the shift in how MES value is measured, according to PR Newswire. The role of MES has evolved from production tracking to providing insights across full operations, including quality management, worker productivity, and supply chain forecasting, he said. Manufacturers achieving that broader impact are doing more things together rather than more things in isolation.

What this means for your team

• Audit your MES coverage map: if the system is not running in every facility and connected to ERP, PLM, and OT layers, quantify what production visibility and data quality you are losing at each disconnected site.
• Treat data readiness as a prerequisite, not a parallel workstream, for any AI initiative. The 43% of manufacturers not effectively using collected data are building AI strategies on a foundation that does not yet exist.
• Add security and compliance to MES evaluation scorecards now. With 46% of manufacturers reporting a cyber incident in the past year, resilience features are a due-diligence requirement, not a differentiator.
• When evaluating MES platforms for expansion, test for elastic, edge-to-cloud architecture that can scale incrementally across sites rather than requiring a full-facility cutover to capture integration value.