The short answer
Do not accept slides. Ask the vendor to run 17 scenes on a live Business Central sandbox, with the network cable pulled, and judge each one by what lands in the ledger.
Why a checklist beats a feature list
Every manufacturing execution system demo looks good for the first ten minutes. The operator screen is large, the colours are clear, and a green bar fills up. The trouble starts later, when the plant has a bad day: the network drops, a machine stops, a truck is weighed twice, a lot has to be recalled. A feature list will not tell you how the product behaves then. Only a scene will.
So this article is a list of scenes rather than features. Each one is something you can ask a vendor to do in front of you, on a Business Central sandbox, with realistic orders. We wrote them from what MESFlow 365 and ManufacturingFlow 365 do, because that is what we can stand behind, but the checklist works for any vendor. If a vendor cannot run a scene, you have learned something. If they say they can but would rather show a recording, you have learned something else.
How to run the session
Ask for a sandbox with demo data that looks like your plant, not a slide deck. Ask the vendor to share the Business Central screen as well as their own app, because the point of a system that sits inside Business Central is what appears on the production order, the capacity ledger and the item ledger. Bring one operator, one supervisor and someone from finance. Each of them will care about different scenes.
Score each scene as shown live, shown on a recording, or not shown. Do not give partial credit for "it is on the roadmap".
The 17 scenes
| # | Ask the vendor to show | What a good answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | An operator starting, pausing and completing an operation with the network switched off | The app keeps working. Actions are stored first in an encrypted local database on the device |
| 2 | The network coming back | Stored actions are sent to Business Central in order, each with the time it really happened, not the time it arrived |
| 3 | A command sent twice on purpose | The second send does nothing. Commands are idempotent, so a retry never double-posts |
| 4 | An operator signing in | Sign-in uses Microsoft Entra ID, so you manage people in one place |
| 5 | How a device proves who it is | The device uses a certificate, not a shared password, and holds only the permissions it needs |
| 6 | Pausing an operation with a downtime reason | The reason is picked from a list and is on the operation log |
| 7 | A machine stopping on its own | The running operation is paused with the mapped downtime reason and the machine's own timestamp |
| 8 | The same stop, but a supervisor decides | The supervisor is offered the pause to accept, rather than it happening silently |
| 9 | The machine running again | The operation resumes without anyone touching a screen |
| 10 | Completing an operation on a counted machine | The machine counter pre-fills the good quantity |
| 11 | Changing a machine setting | The setting is kept in Business Central and applied without restarting the gateway |
| 12 | Cutting the link between gateway and Business Central for a while | Readings are buffered and arrive later, so nothing is lost in the outage |
| 13 | Weighing a truck twice, tare first one time and gross first the next | Either order works, and the ticket shows gross, tare and net |
| 14 | A second truck feeding the same purchase line | The net weight of the second truck is applied to the same line |
| 15 | A weight taken from a stale or moving reading | The system does not take it. Only a fresh, stable reading is accepted |
| 16 | A co-product, a by-product and some waste reported on the last operation | Each output is posted against the order, and waste is recorded as an output with its own cost |
| 17 | A mock recall: pick a finished lot, trace backwards and forwards, list affected customers | Genealogy runs both ways through blends, rework and co-products, and the recall lists lots and customers |
Reading the answers
Scenes 1 to 5 test whether the product can be trusted on a bad network and a shared device. Scenes 6 to 12 test whether machine data becomes information a supervisor can use, not just a dashboard. Scenes 13 to 15 are about the gate, which many vendors skip because it is not glamorous. Scenes 16 and 17 test whether production output and traceability reach the ledgers that finance and quality rely on.
Watch for three patterns. First, a vendor who keeps the shop floor in its own database and promises a nightly integration. That means a second system to reconcile. Second, a vendor who needs the network to be up for every tap. Third, a vendor who answers the machine questions with a list of protocol names but cannot show a stopped machine pausing an operation.
Questions to ask after the scenes
- Which machine drivers have run on a real device, and which are commissioned per site?
- What is installed on the shop floor today, and how is it deployed?
- Which Business Central version is supported?
- Does the product replace Business Central manufacturing, or work on its released production orders?
- Which languages are supported?
A good vendor will answer these plainly, including the uncomfortable ones. We would rather you hear from us that some machine drivers are commissioned per site and must be tested on your equipment before you rely on them.
In Business Central
The scenes above touch the following features: the operation log, the MESFlow Machine Gateway and machine settings, downtime reasons, weighbridge tickets and the gate pass, the role center with its Needs Attention list, production orders and their routing lines, the capacity and item ledgers, and in ManufacturingFlow 365 the co-product and by-product outputs, lot genealogy and the recall workflow. The apps work on released production orders and their routing lines. They extend Business Central manufacturing, they do not replace it.
Limits
Be as demanding of us as of anyone else. The desktop app is unpackaged and unsigned and has no installer yet, so it is not offered as a download. Some machine drivers, namely Sparkplug B, Modbus RTU, EtherNet/IP, Siemens S7 and MTConnect, have not yet run on a real device and are commissioned per site. The apps are in English only and are built for Business Central online, version 29. Our demos run on a sandbox with demo data.
Keep reading
If scene 17 is the one that worries you, read a mock recall in 15 minutes. If scenes 1 and 2 are, read when the plant network drops.
See it on your plant
We are happy to be marked against this list. Book the 17-scene demo and tell us which scenes matter most. We will run them on the sandbox closest to your process, and say plainly if one cannot be shown.