How SimpleMES created a universal MES system on the SimpleOne Low-code platform
updated at: 24 March 2026
The SimpleMES team (part of ITG Corporation) developed a production process control system based on the SimpleOne Low-code platform in a year and a half. Most of the functionality was implemented using Low-code tools, which allowed to create a flexible solution for different industries.
Yuri Dudnikov, SimpleMES product owner, and Ilya Bednyakov, project manager, told us more about the solution development.
How the MES market was formed in Russia
When the Russian market discovered the need for MES systems, Western companies were the first to arrive. They had a significant time advantage - dozens of ready-made solutions in which they had already invested a lot of effort and time. It was very difficult for domestic manufacturers to compete in the open market with ready grown solutions. Investments of time and money in knowledge, competencies, training of specialists and development of own solutions were difficult to justify for domestic companies.
At the same time, in some industries Russian developers have worked on separate functionality from the MES sphere and created strong solutions. But there were very few large companies capable of providing a complete package of all MES functions.
When the local market closed for Western companies, existing MES system developers naturally began to develop their functionality based on their strengths - expanding what they already had ready to a full-fledged MES system.
"Many MES systems have historically branched off from solutions for specific manufacturing companies. A manufacturing company with its own specifics looks at the market, does not find a suitable offer, and decides to make its own system. Then it sees the result and starts selling the developed functionality to similar companies: for example, if the company worked in the food industry, it sells it to the food industry. In this way the development of functionality for a specific industry continues. This approach leads to the creation of highly specialized, often industry-specific solutions"Yuri Dudnikov SimpleMES Product Owner
Currently, the Russian market suffers from a lack of flexible platform solutions in the MES sphere. Integrators either have to use several vendors for different industries (unnecessary money is spent on training, there are difficulties with modernization), or they have to heavily customize the system for different industries each time. Such implementations take a long time - if there was a flexible universal solution, the integrator could customize the system for different industries faster and cheaper.
At the same time, it should be realized that there will never be a completely universal solution that fits all without modifications. Each production facility as a physical object is unique in its own way.
"There is no such thing as implementing a MES system out of the box - they always need customization. Even if you transfer the solution from one factory of the same manufacturer to another, you still need customization. It can be small or serious, but the totality of small details makes up the duration and complexity of implementation"Yuri Dudnikov SimpleMES Product Owner
About SimpleMES
SimpleMES is a production management system that operates at a level between the planning (ERP) and execution (PMS) levels.
The system takes customer orders from the planning level (from ERP), transforms them into production orders and operations at the shop floor level, collects production and machine data from the execution level and returns the actual information back to the management loop.
SimpleMES' target customer is medium to high-volume production: discrete or batch. Companies that need to manage the full production cycle and product quality with planning, dispatching, transparent production data collection and traceability tools.
SimpleMES is a universal platform because it was not created for a specific industry or a specific customer, but as a solution that can be adapted to different types of production. Versatility is achieved through basic functionality that covers common MES tasks, as well as flexible customization tools to adapt to industry specifics and the possibility of deep customization for unique processes.
"Because of the specifics of each customer's production facilities, the solution will still look different at each customer, but with the platform approach, this customization can be done quickly and without vendor involvement in every minor change."Yuri Dudnikov SimpleMES Product Owner
About system development at SimpleOne
SimpleMES team has more than 15 years of experience in industry. Before creating their own product, the specialists realized and implemented MES solutions on other technology stacks - these were either "heavy" corporate solutions or self-written systems for a specific type of production or industry.
This experience helped us understand the key problem of traditional development - the project approach. In this model, each implementation turns into a unique project: developers adapt the system to the requirements of a particular customer, create specific functionality, and customize it for existing processes. Over time, technical debt accumulates - a lot of code versions for different customers, difficulties with updates, dependence of each customer on the development team for any changes. It becomes more and more difficult to scale such a solution to new production facilities: each implementation requires serious revisions, the timeframe grows, and the cost increases.
"We saw that now is the right point in space and time to do an MES solution in a systematic way from scratch. Not developing any particular function, not making MES for one particular customer, but just sit down, think it through, synthesize all the experience and start doing it"Yuri Dudnikov SimpleMES Product Owner
To develop the solution, they chose SimpleOne - a low-code business process automation platform. The team analyzed the platform before starting development.
The main factors of the choice:
- The future lies in web-based architecture and Low-code tools. SimpleOne allowed MES to be built initially as a platform-based, adaptable solution.
- Availability of Low-code and No-code tools. Integrators and customers can customize the system for their needs instead of waiting for the vendor to implement industry specifics.
- Pro-code capability. The platform doesn't restrict deep development in available JavaScript when needed.
- Lowered threshold of entry for developers. The platform allowed the SimpleMES team to train specialists and develop competencies internally. The company was able to build a team without highly specialized MES developers - expensive and rare specialists.
Stages of development
The development of SimpleMES took about a year and a half and took place in two main stages.
Stage 1: Architecture Design (6 months)
The team gathered all industry experience and developed the system architecture. The system was initially designed as a universal system - not for one client and not for one industry. Detailed preparation and analysis of the platform before the launch allowed avoiding serious unexpected difficulties later on.
Phase 2: MVP development (1 year)
The development of the MVP took approximately one year. The architecture was thought out in advance, which allowed us to meet the planned deadlines.
Platform tools and capabilities
SimpleMES uses the full stack of SimpleOne features: workflow editor, low-code tools, custom scripts, REST API, message queues, inheritance mechanisms and custom widget development. Workflow-editor became one of the key tools allowing to work with any tables of the system and flexibly customize processes.
The balance between Low-code and Pro-code approaches became a peculiarity of the development. Most of the system functionality is implemented using Low-code tools, which provides flexibility and speed of development.
SimpleOne provided the necessary tools to create interfaces for the MES system, as the solution is used on the shop floor, where the conditions of use are different from the office, the interfaces should be simple, fast, with large and contrasting elements, adapted for touch screens and easy to input in the production environment.
The platform allows you to create web-based interfaces that work on any device - computers, tablets, industrial panels - without installing client software. The SimpleMES team realized operator interfaces that do not depend on a specific OS or device type and are adapted to real production conditions.
"The SimpleMES creation story is significant for us: it demonstrates the true versatility and potential of the platform. The team was able to build an industrial MES system without relying on a highly specialized stack, using only Low-code tools and the SimpleOne architecture. Such capabilities help businesses launch complex products quickly, systematically and without excessive costs - on a single platform that was originally designed not only for service processes, but for any business processes and enterprise applications"Ilya Radchenko SimpleOne's director of platform products.
For the convenience of performing production tasks, the team created its own widgets: creation of production order templates, division of production orders into smaller ones, possibility of applying a matrix of correspondences between different entities, a tool for working with all types of graphical labeling.
Results and development plans
At the moment the product is at the stage of active market launch. The MVP is ready, and now the development team is working with a number of production companies.
The MVP includes implemented basic MES functionality: production order management, production and machine data collection, integration with ERP and other systems, operator interfaces for shop floor work, basic reporting and analytics. The system has been tested and is ready for commercial operation.
"We see particularly high interest in implementation from the automotive industry. Several projects are currently under active development: we are conducting process surveys, refining the integration architecture and forming pilot implementation contours"Ilya Bednyakov Project Manager
The interest from the automotive industry is not accidental - it is a complex discrete production with high requirements for traceability, integration of multiple systems, flexibility and focus on import substitution.
Development plans
In the nearest plans of the team: a module of planning and dispatching, integration with the level of control system via OPC UA, expansion of traceability capabilities and strengthening of quality control functionality.
These areas of development will allow to optimize production processes through advanced planning, collect data directly from the equipment through the industrial protocol OPC UA, provide more detailed control of production at all stages and improve product quality through advanced control tools.
Conclusions
The experience of creating SimpleMES on the SimpleOne platform confirms the effectiveness of the Low-code approach for the development of complex industrial systems.
"In traditional development, you often have to actually rewrite the system after 5-10 years. On a platform, this process is easier and faster. The ability to quickly adapt the system to the real business is more important than deep custom development from scratch"Ilya Bednyakov Project Manager
Low-code platform enables rapid time-to-market, reduces development costs, increases flexibility for customization, provides ease of scalability, provides more available talent, and simplifies product evolution.