# Rockwell Automation report: 93% of manufacturers have MES, but only 23% have fully integrated it

By MarketScale Newsroom · Published 2026-07-17 · Industrial IoT on MarketScale
Canonical: https://www.marketscale.com/industries/industrial-iot/rockwell-automation-report-93-of-manufacturers-have-mes-but-only-23-have-fully-integrated-it

> A Rockwell Automation survey of 1,560 manufacturers finds MES adoption is nearly universal, but enterprise-wide integration remains the defining gap.

## Key points

- 93% of manufacturers have adopted Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES).
- Only 23% of manufacturers have fully integrated MES across the enterprise.
- Enterprise-wide integration of MES remains a key challenge for manufacturers.

Nearly every manufacturer on the planet has a manufacturing execution system. Almost none of them have made it work across the whole company. That is the central finding of Rockwell Automation's "Scaling MES Across the Enterprise" report, released July 14, 2026, and based on responses from 1,560 manufacturing and industrial operations decision-makers spanning 17 countries.

The numbers are stark. According to PR Newswire's release of the report, 93% of manufacturers have MES running in at least one facility. Yet only 28% have deployed it enterprise-wide, and just 23% report full integration across ERP, PLM, quality, and operational technology systems. The gap between deployment and genuine, end-to-end integration is where most manufacturers are stuck.

## Integration is both the goal and the blocker

The report makes clear that integration is not just a technical wish-list item. According to PR Newswire, 44% of manufacturers rank integration as their top MES buying requirement when evaluating new or replacement systems. At the same time, 33% name MES as their single biggest data integration problem, meaning the same factor driving purchase decisions is also the hardest thing to actually solve after purchase.

> The gap between deploying MES in one facility and running it across the enterprise is where most manufacturers are quietly losing money.

Manufacturing Dive, reporting on the release, noted that MES systems monitor, track, document, and control the conversion of raw materials into finished goods on the factory floor. That core function is well understood, but reporter Nathan Owens highlighted that integrating separate, patchwork systems has become one of the biggest industry challenges, particularly as AI adoption and cyber risk both accelerate at the same time.

IDC associate research director Lorenzo Veronesi, quoted in the Rockwell Automation report via PR Newswire, described the stakes plainly: organizations that leave disconnected systems and underutilized data unaddressed risk leaving significant value on the table, with integration ranking simultaneously as the top buying requirement and the leading modernization challenge.

## AI timelines are arriving before data foundations are ready

The integration gap has a compounding problem: AI expectations are already on the clock. Rockwell Automation's broader State of Smart Manufacturing research, cited in the report, shows manufacturers expect 42% of processes to be AI-supported within the next year and 54% by 2030. The timeline is aggressive.

The catch is that 43% of respondents acknowledge they are not effectively using the data they already collect, according to PR Newswire's summary of the report. AI depends on clean, connected, real-time data from across production, quality, and supply chain systems. If MES remains siloed at the site level, the data pipelines AI requires simply do not exist. Teams that have not solved integration will find themselves unable to operationalize AI investments regardless of how much they spend on models or platforms.

## Sources

- [93% of Manufacturers Have MES, But Only 23% Have Fully Integrated It, New Rockwell Automation Report Finds](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/93-of-manufacturers-have-mes-but-only-23-have-fully-integrated-it-new-rockwell-automation-report-finds-302824247.html) (PR Newswire)
- [Majority of manufacturers struggle to scale execution systems: Rockwell](https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/majority-manufacturers-struggle-scale-mes-rockwell-automation/825278/) (Manufacturing Dive)

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