Manufacturing Execution Systems sit between ERP business systems and plant-floor control systems, tracking production orders, quality data, genealogy records, and equipment states in real time — and their bridging position between IT and OT networks makes them both a critical integration point and a high-value lateral-movement target for adversaries who have already breached corporate IT. Zero Trust MES security enforces authenticated access from both IT users (production schedulers, quality managers) and OT systems (PLCs, SCADA), with network segmentation ensuring MES compromise cannot propagate into plant-floor control systems.
Related: Zero Trust for OT · DCS · SCADA · Manufacturing · IEC-62443