Proficy Alternatives: Full MES, Light MES or OEE First for CPG Plants

A household and personal care plant runs eight filling lines, an ERP that handles orders well, and a paper downtime log. The group wants an MES, and Proficy is on the list. First decide which job comes first: running orders, batches and genealogy, or finding where line time goes.

Below: what Proficy is today, per its own pages; when it fits; and four alternatives grouped by job. Fabrico wrote this page and is one of the four, so read it as you would any vendor's page. For more light options, see our light MES alternatives review.

What Proficy is today (as of 11.11.2026)

A Velotic blog post dated 31 August 2026 says: "Velotic is a new independent industrial software company formed from the combination of Proficy from GE Vernova and ThingWorx and Kepware from PTC." GE Vernova's Proficy overview page and its MES page now carry the line "We are now Velotic". Velotic's site lists Proficy among its products.

What the vendor's pages say, as of 11.11.2026:

• The portfolio. Velotic's Proficy page lists Smart Factory MES, Historian, Operations Hub, the iFIX and CIMPLICITY HMI/SCADA products, Tracker, Scheduler and CSense.
• Proficy Smart Factory MES. Its product page lists work orders, routes, materials and labor; OEE and downtime; quality with SPC and approvals; traceability and genealogy; and digital work instructions. It runs as SaaS or on premises, and names MCP support, GraphQL APIs and a "Chat with Proficy MES" feature.
• Proficy Plant Applications. GE Vernova's Plant Applications page calls it a manufacturing operations management (MOM) solution for process, discrete and mixed manufacturers, run in a private or public cloud, on premises, or both.
• Cloud OEE. A managed OEE service, fully hosted in AWS, that can run alone or next to on-premises MES.
• Implementation. GE Vernova's MES page says many manufacturers choose to work with experienced implementation partners.
• CPG and food. Velotic's CPG page lists Smart Factory MES for consumer goods plants, and its food and beverage page names electronic batch records.

Customer savings and OEE gains on the sites are vendor-reported, so we don't repeat them.

Ask in the demo: which Proficy product your scope needs, and who implements it, Velotic or a partner.

When Proficy fits

Based on its pages, Proficy fits plants where most of these are true:

• Orders run through the MES: work orders, routes, materials and labor are managed in it, not only in the ERP.
• Every batch must be traceable: customers or regulators ask for genealogy, SPC records or electronic batch records.
• Proficy is already on site: Velotic's Smart Factory MES page describes combining the MES with Historian, and with Operations Hub, which brings Proficy HMI/SCADA data into the same views.
• Mixed process and discrete steps across many sites, as the Plant Applications page describes for large, multi-site and mixed manufacturers.

If that is your plant, a full MES is built for it; for those cases, read when a light MES is not enough. If your first question is about stops, speed and output, read the light MES option first.

What a full MES and a light MES record on one filling line

A CPG line raises the same questions every day: why did the filler stop, how much did we give away, which bulk batch went into which bottles. The Proficy column comes from its product pages; the Fabrico column is ours.

Both measure stops and OEE. The top half is what a light MES leaves to the ERP. Checkweigher rejects can still reach the quality part of OEE as a count (checkweigher rejects in OEE). For your own plant, use the four checks in light MES vs full MES, or read OEE vs MES.

Comparison table: Proficy and four alternatives

Proficy's own MES FAQ names Siemens Opcenter and AVEVA MES among its examples of MES platforms. The tools are listed in no order of merit; Fabrico comes first because we wrote this page. Facts as of 11.11.2026, from each vendor's own site.

Want to see the light MES side for a CPG filling line? Book a demo and bring one week's downtime log.

Fabrico: light MES and OEE, with orders left in the ERP

Fabrico wrote this page. It is cloud software for OEE and light MES. Where Proficy Smart Factory runs orders, quality and genealogy, Fabrico starts from line time: where it went, why, and at what cost. Per our MES and OEE overview:

• Three ways to connect. The PLC on automated lines, an IoT device with sensors on older ones, and AI cameras, an add-on on request, to count output where people pack by hand (how the cameras work).
• Stops with reasons. Stops come from the machine signal; the operator tags the reason on a tablet or phone.
• Losses in money next to OEE, per line and shift, on the web, iOS and Android.
• Camera video. With the camera add-on, video opens from any point on the shift timeline. In the standard setup it is streamed on request, not stored in Fabrico.
• ERP and data out. A connection to SAP or another ERP can be scoped per customer through REST APIs. Data also leaves through webhooks and Excel or CSV files.
• Rollout, per our MES page. Devices connected in about a month; full rollout in 3 to 4 months.
• Stays in your ERP: job dispatching, BOMs, routings and genealogy.
• Roadmap. Production planning is on our roadmap, with no release date. Also roadmap, not live: a camera add-on that detects stops and offers a likely reason.
• Not Fabrico: electronic batch records, SPC and pack inspection.

Ficosota, a hygiene, tissue and household products company from Bulgaria, is also an investor in Fabrico, as our investment announcement says. Across its 16 lines in Fabrico, OEE went from 53.11% to 59.62% between June and September 2026; these figures say nothing about the camera add-on. Details are in the Ficosota story.

Ask in the demo: how each machine on a pilot line reports run, stop and count, and which data flows to and from your ERP.

Fits plants that run orders well in the ERP, have no batch genealogy rule on these lines, and want stops, speed and output measured first. Our OEE software guide lists what to compare, and MES for mid size FMCG plants covers what to start with.

Siemens Opcenter: process MES with recipes, batches and lab sampling

Siemens sells separate Opcenter Execution products by industry, among them Process, Discrete and Pharma, according to its Opcenter Execution page. What the Opcenter Execution Process page says, as of 11.11.2026:

• One MES covers formulated product operations and packing steps such as labeling and palletizing.
• It manages formulas, recipes and batches, and tracks raw material properties such as viscosity or shelf life.
• It ties the MES to laboratory information management (LIMS) software for batch sampling and testing.
• It describes a measured, incremental, layered rollout off legacy systems.

The Opcenter portfolio page also lists Opcenter APS for scheduling and Opcenter X, a modular SaaS offer for the SMB market. Our Siemens Opcenter OEE review goes deeper.

Compared with Proficy: Proficy's pages describe one MES for process, discrete and mixed manufacturing; Siemens' Process page describes formulated operations and packing steps in one MES. Ask both how one system covers your mixing room and your packing hall.

Fits plants that run formulated products and want recipes, batches and lab sampling in the MES, as its process page describes.

AVEVA MES: on-site execution, multi-site analytics on CONNECT

AVEVA is part of the Schneider Electric group, as its site states. Its MES page says, as of 11.11.2026:

• Deployment is composable: operator tasks are built from use case libraries and scaled step by step.
• OEE KPIs and schedule adherence are measured in real time.
• It enforces BOMs and pre-weight recipes, keeps traceability and genealogy, and applies SPC.
• It runs on premises or as hybrid cloud, with multi-site analytics on AVEVA's CONNECT platform.

Compared with Proficy: both put OEE, quality and genealogy in the MES. Ask both which parts must run on site for the line to keep running.

Fits plants that want to build an MES in modules, with execution on site and multi-site analytics in the cloud, as AVEVA's page describes.

SAP Digital Manufacturing: MES from your ERP vendor

If your plant runs SAP for orders and materials, SAP's own offer is SAP Digital Manufacturing. Its page says, as of 11.11.2026:

• It is a manufacturing operations management (MOM) platform in the cloud on SAP Business Technology Platform.
• You define your production model in S88 or S95 terms, with configurable KPIs and embedded SAP Analytics Cloud.
• Execution covers labor, standard work instructions, scrap and rework, with skills tracking in SAP SuccessFactors.
• SAP Manufacturing Execution and SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence are being retired; version 15.5 is the final release.

Compared with Proficy: SAP describes a cloud MES on SAP Business Technology Platform, coordinated with SAP planning and logistics and with SAP SuccessFactors. Ask both how data from your existing PLCs and SCADA reaches the MES.

Fits plants that run SAP today, especially sites on SAP ME or MII, given SAP's retirement note.

Proficy or an alternative: match the first job

• Orders, quality, genealogy and batch records in one MES, with Proficy already on site: Proficy Smart Factory MES.
• Formulated products with recipes, batches and lab sampling: Siemens Opcenter Execution Process.
• An MES built in modules, execution on site, analytics in the cloud: AVEVA MES.
• SAP for orders, and SAP ME or MII sites to move: SAP Digital Manufacturing.
• Stops, speed and output measured on every line first, orders left in the ERP: Fabrico.

These are not exclusive. A plant can measure OEE on every line now and add an MES for batch records later; the stop-reason list and the weekly loss review carry over. Before a large project, read why MES implementations fail.

Worked example: one week on a shampoo line

Sample data, not a customer's line or a product screen. Ten shifts of 480 planned minutes give 4,800 minutes. At an ideal 100 bottles a minute, the filling line could make 480,000 bottles.

Stops took 600 minutes: six changeovers of 35 minutes (210), 150 minutes of capper jams, 120 at the labeller and 120 waiting for bulk from the mixing room. Availability is 4,200 of 4,800 minutes, or 87.5%.

In 4,200 minutes the ideal is 420,000 bottles. The filler counted 378,000, so performance is 90.0%. The checkweigher rejected 7,560, leaving 370,440 good, so quality is 98.0%. OEE is 87.5% x 90.0% x 98.0% = 77.2%, the same as 370,440 good of 480,000 possible (OEE calculation).

That is the OEE record: of 109,560 bottles lost, stops cost 60,000, slow running 42,000 and rejects 7,560. The batch record answers another question: which bulk batch went into which bottles, and whether fill weights stayed in spec. A full MES keeps both. A light MES keeps the first and leaves the second to the ERP or a batch system; our lot traceability data model shows what that needs.

Before a Proficy demo: six questions for any MES vendor

• Which modules are in the quote, and which does your first phase need?
• Who implements and supports it? The vendor, a partner, or both.
• How does each machine report run, stop and count on one pilot line, the oldest included?
• What stays in the ERP? Orders, BOMs, recipes and genealogy: where each lives, and who maintains the link.
• Where does it run, and which parts must stay on site for the line to keep running?
• What drives the quote? Sites, lines, modules, integrations and training. Give every vendor the same list.

Cameras at manual stations see people, so agree the setup with your works council first (cameras without surveillance) and check any camera add-on count against a hand count (how accurate camera OEE is). See also computer vision for household products, our FMCG computer vision guide and the FMCG industry page.

What Proficy buyers ask next

Is Proficy part of Velotic now?

Velotic's site lists Proficy among its products. A Velotic blog post dated 31 August 2026 says Velotic is a new independent industrial software company formed from the combination of Proficy from GE Vernova and ThingWorx and Kepware from PTC. GE Vernova's Proficy overview page now says "We are now Velotic".

Does Proficy include OEE?

Yes. Proficy Smart Factory MES lists OEE, downtime and production losses among its capabilities, and GE Vernova lists Cloud OEE, a managed service hosted in AWS.

Is a light MES enough for a CPG plant?

It can be, when the biggest losses are stops, slow running and rejects, and the ERP runs orders well. It is not enough when customers or regulators require batch genealogy or electronic batch records. Those are full MES jobs.

How is Fabrico different from Proficy?

Proficy Smart Factory MES runs orders, quality, genealogy and OEE, per its site. Fabrico measures the lines: stops and counts from the machine signal, reasons from the operator, OEE and losses in money, and the camera add-on where no signal counts. Job dispatching, BOMs, routings and genealogy stay in your ERP.

Can Fabrico run next to an existing MES?

Fabrico's data leaves through a REST API, webhooks, and Excel or CSV files, so another system can read it. Agree first which system holds the official OEE figure.

Want to see the light MES side on a CPG line like yours? Book a demo or ask us a question.