Manufacturing operations guide

Production tracking and work-in-process in MES

Production tracking answers a simple operational question with difficult data requirements: what is being made, where is it, what state is it in, and what happened to it?

WIPOrdersStatus

Last reviewed: August 10, 2026 · By Marcus J. Calderwick

Order and operation identity

Each execution event needs a stable link to the production order, routing step or process segment it belongs to. Ambiguous order identities cause downstream reporting and genealogy problems.

Execution state

Common states include queued, released, active, paused, held, complete or cancelled, though every organization should standardize its own state model.

Quantities

MES may track started, completed, scrapped, reworked and remaining quantities. Clear unit-of-measure rules prevent totals from becoming misleading.

WIP visibility

Work-in-process visibility depends on knowing the last confirmed location and status of a unit, batch or lot. Scanner, operator and equipment events can contribute to that record.

Exceptions matter

The most valuable tracking often occurs around exceptions: holds, short material, failed checks, downtime or reroute decisions. Those events explain why a plan changed.

MES terminology and boundaries vary among plants and vendors. Validate data ownership, safety impacts, interfaces and change control against your actual manufacturing architecture and approved procedures.