Being confronted with IT strategic questions of how to constantlyreduce IT operating costs and at the same time live up to everincreasing manufacturing demands, automobile manufacturers areencountering problems to find appropriate IT support forproduction planning and execution. Moreover, they are facing thechallenge to clearly define and demarcate Enterprise ResourcePlanning (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)functionality. Despite the existence of a number of standardizationefforts addressing MES functionality, automobile manufacturersare still struggling to reach a common understanding for the termMES and a clear functional design. The paper addresses this needby developing a functional reference model for MES in theautomotive industry based on a multiple case study approach. Thecase studies examine the design and implementation ofmanufacturing-related functionality in four leading automotivemanufacturing companies
