Macro Vision 2026: MES, a Major Growth Opportunity for Integrators
Why MES is becoming a standard of Industry 4.0 — and why the opportunity is still far from being fully captured
By 2026, the digital transformation of manufacturing is no longer viewed as an “innovation” topic. It has become a matter of competitiveness, resilience, and the ability to meet growing requirements in quality, traceability, and lead times within an increasingly unstable environment.
In this context, the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is progressively establishing itself as the central operational layer of the connected factory — the one that bridges planning systems (ERP) with real-world shop-floor execution.
For integrators, this shift opens up a vast market. Many manufacturers are still poorly equipped at the shop-floor level, and most sites adopt digitalization in successive phases (performance management, quality, traceability, paperless processes, followed by multi-line or multi-site rollouts).
The result is straightforward: MES does not generate a single “one-off project,” but rather a continuous project lifecycle.
2026: A Shop Floor Still Largely Under-Equipped
Despite ongoing progress in digitalization, European indicators reveal a structural gap, particularly among SMEs and mid-sized industrial companies, which represent a significant share of the industrial landscape.
Eurostat highlights that a large proportion of EU SMEs remain at a low level of digital maturity. In the “Digitalisation in Europe 2024” report, the majority of SMEs fall into the “low” or “very low” digital intensity categories (approximately 33.8% low and 42.3% very low).
While these indicators do not measure MES adoption directly, they reflect a clear operational reality: many organizations are still far from systematic, real-time, and standardized shop-floor control.
At the operational level, other surveys confirm this gap. The Manufacturing Leadership Council reports that in 2024, 70% of manufacturers still rely on manual data entry — a typical symptom of poorly equipped shop-floor management or excessive dependence on paper and spreadsheets.
In other words, by 2026, many factories may be digitally “equipped” (ERP, sometimes WMS or CMMS), yet remain fragile at the execution level.
Why MES Is Becoming a Standard of Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 promises connectivity, data-driven operations, automation, and AI. In practice, however, these ambitions face a critical prerequisite: reliable, contextualized, and actionable shop-floor data.
This is precisely the role of MES: capturing and structuring execution data (work orders, operations, machine states, quality results, scrap, traceability, downtime), and delivering it in a usable form to both teams and systems (ERP, CMMS, BI platforms).
A strong signal illustrates this challenge: manufacturers are collecting more data than ever, yet struggle to convert it into decisions. Rockwell Automation reports that in 2025, industrial companies effectively use only around 44% of the data they collect — an improvement compared to 2024, but still far from optimal.
This is exactly where MES creates value: transforming raw data into actionable insights, at the right time, for the right role — operators, supervisors, maintenance teams, quality managers, or industrial leadership.
At the same time, “smart manufacturing” studies show a clear investment trend. Deloitte notes that manufacturers are investing heavily in smart manufacturing initiatives, including data foundations, sensors, analytics, and cloud technologies.
MES therefore becomes the operational hub structuring shop-floor workflows and ensures that these investments deliver tangible, day-to-day value.
The “MES 2026” Business Case: Why It’s a Major Market for Integrators
A growing market with increasingly structured demand
Market research firms forecast sustained growth in the MES market throughout the second half of the 2020s, with compound annual growth rates around 10% and a significant increase in total market size by 2030. While figures vary depending on scope (software alone versus software plus services), the trend is clear: MES is no longer a niche solution.
A multi-project opportunity, not a single delivery
For integrators, the key point lies in the economic model:
- MES projects often start with a pilot (one line, one workshop, one primary objective).
- They are followed by functional extensions (quality, traceability, maintenance, documentation, daily performance management, etc.).
- Then come scope extensions (multi-line, multi-site deployments).
- Finally, continuous optimization (KPIs, analytics, standardization, additional integrations).
This trajectory aligns with findings from the Manufacturing Leadership Council regarding the gradual standardization of industrial data: many manufacturers are not there yet, but clearly target this maturity by 2030.
As a result, 2026 represents a wide-open opportunity for integrators capable of proposing a long-term roadmap rather than a one-off project.
“X% of Manufacturers Are Poorly Equipped”: How to Make the Case Credibly in 2026
Rather than inventing a specific “MES adoption rate,” the most robust approach is to rely on accepted proxy indicators used in macroeconomic and digital transformation analysis:
- 76% of EU SMEs are classified as having “low” or “very low” digital intensity (Eurostat).
- 70% of manufacturers still rely on manual data entry (Manufacturing Leadership Council).
- Companies effectively use only 44% of the data they collect (Rockwell Automation, 2025).
In 2026, the majority of industrial sites remain insufficiently equipped at the shop-floor level: manual data collection, limited real-time visibility, and partial use of available data. This is precisely where MES delivers value — structuring execution and making data actionable.
Why 2026 Is the Right Moment for Integrators
Because MES strengthens ERP — and increases project value
The question “We already have an ERP, why do we need MES?” has become a commercial opportunity. ERP plans and consolidates; MES executes and secures data on the shop floor. Together, they improve data reliability, user adoption, and time-to-value — naturally increasing project scope without adding unnecessary complexity.
Because MES is a foundational layer for future initiatives
AI, digital twins, and advanced analytics are difficult to industrialize without reliable shop-floor data. McKinsey highlights strong perceived applicability of digital twins, with a growing number of organizations already deploying them — which, in practice, requires strong industrial data foundations
Conclusion: 2026, a Strategic Window to Seize
By 2026, MES is becoming a standard of Industry 4.0 — not because it is fashionable, but because the data clearly shows:
- persistent under-digitalisation among SMEs and mid-sized manufacturers,
- continued reliance on manual data entry,
- and incomplete exploitation of collected data.
For integrators, this represents a high-value project pipeline and, above all, a recurring business cycle: pilot → functional expansion → scope expansion → continuous optimization.
