Engineering Execution System vs ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems play a central role in engineering-driven organisations.
They coordinate orders, resources, costs, and delivery commitments across the enterprise.
From an organisational perspective, ERP provides stability and financial coherence.
From an execution perspective, however, ERP addresses a different problem domain.
What ERP systems model
ERP systems are designed to answer questions such as:
- What has been ordered?
- What resources are required?
- What are the planned dates and costs?
- What is the current commercial status?
To do so, ERP relies on:
- defined product structures,
- planned routings,
- work orders,
- and aggregated progress signals.
This makes ERP highly effective for planning and control, but not for observing execution reality at engineering level.
ERP systems operate on assumptions of executability.
They require that products and processes are already sufficiently defined to be planned.
What ERP does not represent
ERP does not model the execution of engineering work itself.
Specifically, ERP does not make explicit:
- how engineering work unfolds across assemblies and components,
- how dependencies between engineering tasks affect executability,
- how readiness emerges before production can begin,
- or where execution risk accumulates during ongoing definition.
As a result, ERP reflects execution after it has stabilised, not while it is still forming.
Engineering Execution as a distinct system layer
Engineering Execution refers to the execution of engineering work that takes place between product definition and production.
This execution layer:
- evolves under incomplete and changing definition,
- spans multiple assemblies and phases,
- and directly determines whether production can proceed as planned.
It is structurally different from planning and accounting domains and therefore cannot be derived reliably from ERP data alone.
ERP plans and accounts for execution.
Engineering Execution determines whether execution is structurally possible.
Relation to Product Flow
Product Flow is an Engineering Execution System (EES) designed to make this execution layer explicit.
From the perspective of Product Flow:
- ERP remains responsible for planning, costing, and commercial control,
- while engineering execution is observed and analysed as its own system domain.
Product Flow does not replace ERP.
It complements ERP by exposing execution readiness, dependency resolution, and structural risk before they appear as delays or cost deviations.
Why the distinction matters
Treating engineering execution as a planning problem leads to systematic blind spots:
- readiness is assumed rather than observed,
- dependencies are hidden inside schedules,
- and execution risk surfaces only when plans fail.
Separating Engineering Execution from ERP logic allows execution reality to be discussed before corrective action becomes urgent.
This comparison reflects the analytical perspective underlying Product Flow.
It does not evaluate ERP implementations or vendor capabilities.