Historically speaking, it is the view on discrete manufacturing processes that has characterized the understanding of MES. In discrete manufacturing comparatively large numbers of highly specialized manufacturing units work nearly autarkic. Normally they are only connected by different equipment for material transport. For the plant wide acquisition and processing of production data as well as the optimization of production processes there is functionality required that can only be provided by means of additional infrastructure, the MES system.

Compared to discrete manufacturing , the number of process stages necessary in process industry is rather small. However, due to process-technological interferences between  the different process stages, the required level of integration and the complexity of information exchange are significantly higher.

In discrete manufacturing, functions are implemented in superordinated systems. In contrast to that, they are directly required in process industry for the entire control level. For that reason MES has to be a Manufacturing Execution Solution where essential parts of the required functionality can be directly integrated in the process control level, depending on production and organizational requirements. By doing so, the technological characteristics of the production process can be ideally integrated in the overall solution.

Leading institutions share this approach to MES for process industries:

• NAMUR, an international pool of users for automation and MES in process industry, postulates that MES functionality is to be considered as an integrated part of process control technology.
• According to a survey by Gartner Group, ERP systems tend to merge with the process control level, so that classical MES systems are going to be replaced in the near future.