Next Plus: The "Anti-MES" Revolution for Smart Manufacturing

In today's manufacturing landscape, leaders face a dual crisis: a "Silver Tsunami" of retiring experts who carry decades of tribal knowledge, and a younger "Gen Z" workforce that demands intuitive digital tools but often stays in a role for only two to five years.

 

 

Next Plus is an AI-enabled Smart Operations Platform that positions itself as the "Anti-MES." Designed by manufacturers for manufacturers, it removes the complexity, high costs, and lengthy deployment times associated with traditional Manufacturing Execution Systems. It delivers a hyper-intelligent knowledge ecosystem that operates at the "speed of thought".

 

Why the "Anti-MES"?

Traditional MES solutions are often rigid and difficult to install, requiring significant upfront investments and year-long implementation timelines that can paralyze small- to mid-sized manufacturers.

• Rapid Time-to-Value: Mid-sized companies often achieve full ROI and operational status within 30 to 90 days, while smaller operations can be up and running in mere days.

• Self-Service Architecture: The platform is built for self-service, eliminating the need for specialized IT or BI personnel or expensive external support. 

• No-Code Integration: Using a "drag-and-drop" approach, it integrates management, engineering, and manufacturing systems into one "source of truth" without disrupting existing workflows.

  

  Bridging the Generational Gap

  Next Plus recognizes that a modern workforce lives on social media. To ensure adoption, the platform’s interface is designed to look and feel more like TikTok or Instagram than a spreadsheet.

• Capturing Tribal Knowledge: Before experts retire, the "Video Magic Maker" tool allows an engineer to film a process and automatically generate a digital SOP. This can reduce documentation time by up to 80%.
  
  
• AI-Powered Multilingual Support: For diverse shop floors, the system provides instant, AI-optimized translations into 160 languages. Unlike generic translators, this AI can be tuned to specific industry terminology to ensure precision and safety.
  

• Non-Linear Guidance: Unlike traditional paper manuals, Next Plus uses decision trees. If a worker encounters a specific variable (e.g., a red light vs. a green light), the instructions adapt dynamically to the situation.
  

Making "Audit Prep" a Thing of the Past

For manufacturers in highly regulated sectors—such as Aerospace, Defense, Medical Devices, and Pharma—preparing for an audit is usually a frantic scramble to locate or recreate lost paperwork.

Next Plus enforces true paperless management and is certified for FDA CFR 21 Part 11, ISO 9001:2015, and AS9100. Because data is collected in real-time with electronic signatures, your facility is "always audit-ready".

AI-Driven Troubleshooting and Data Capture

Next Plus moves beyond simple instructions by turning the shop floor into a conversational environment:

• Smart Troubleshooting: The AI analyzes unstructured data—like past fault reports—to provide dynamic answers when an operator asks, "It doesn't work, what do I do?"

• Digitizing "Old School" Tools: You don't need expensive IoT sensors for everything. Operators can simply take a photo of a manual dial or caliper; the AI extracts the measurement and digitizes it automatically.
  

Jaw-Dropping Results

The shift to a smart operations platform delivers measurable efficiency gains:

• 30% to 40% reduction in personnel training time. 

• 70% reduction in production reporting time. 
  
  
• Significant improvements in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) and Overall Labor Efficiency (OLE). 

By empowering every employee with AI-optimized tools, Next Plus allows manufacturers to stop fighting their software and start optimizing their production.

Ready to see the "Anti-MES" in action? Schedule a Demo to experience smart manufacturing the simple way.

Watch Mickey Shaposhnik, Founder/CEO of NextPlus, explain and demonstrate the capabilities of this powerful manufacturing solution: 

Listen as Kirk Davis, Executive Director of CAMPS, interviews Mickey about NextPlus: