From 3 to 5 November 2026 OpenMES had its own stand for the first time at an industrial trade fair. We spent three days at Warsaw Industry Week 2026, the tenth edition of the fair at Ptak Warsaw Expo in Nadarzyn near Warsaw, showing the open-source MES to the people who run production every day.
Until now most people met OpenMES on GitHub, in the online demo or in a video call. At the fair we could finally put the software next to a running machine and let visitors see what happens on the screen when something happens on the line.
A production line on the table
Instead of slides we brought a working miniature of a production line: a conveyor belt with sensors in a transparent case. Every product that passed the sensor was counted by a small counter with its own display, labelled “Line 1”, and the count went straight into OpenMES. On the tablet next to it visitors could watch the work order fill up in real time, open the line overview, the shift monitor and the schedule, and check what an operator would see on a shop-floor terminal.
The setup shows the part of MES that is hardest to explain on paper: the connection between the machine and the work order. The same mechanism works with real equipment, where the OpenMES connectivity module reads data over MQTT, Modbus or OPC UA.
Who came to the stand
Five of us were at the stand for all three days. We talked with production and plant managers, IT people from manufacturing companies, automation integrators and companies that build machines themselves. The questions came back to a few themes:
- How much does it cost? The Community edition is free and open source; you install it on your own server. Companies that want extra modules, support and guarantees can buy OpenMES Enterprise online, and those without their own IT can use OpenMES Cloud.
- Will it work with our machines? Older machines without a modern controller can usually be connected through simple signals such as a “running” lamp or a counter pulse, exactly like the counter on our demo line.
- How long does an implementation take? A first line can be running the same day in the cloud version or after a short installation on your own server; a full rollout depends on the number of machines and integrations.
What we take away
The fair confirmed something we hear in every conversation: many plants still collect production data on paper or in spreadsheets, and they want a system they can try without a large upfront commitment. That is exactly the gap an open-source MES fills. We came back with a list of feature requests and integration questions that will shape the next releases.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by, tried the demo and shared how production works in their plant. If we did not manage to talk at the fair, it is not too late:
- Try the online demo or download OpenMES from GitHub,
- start a free 14-day trial of OpenMES Cloud,
- or book a 30-minute call and we will walk you through the system on your own use case.
Warsaw Industry Week 2026 was our first fair. It will not be the last.