Historians have been faithfully collecting plant data for years. But today's products are integrated with automation platforms and enterprise applications to flex decision-making power.
Customers such as World Kitchen that use the Proficy Plant Applications MES can do drill-down analysis on data from both the Historian and the Plant Applications MES to feed a business intelligence tool for greater insights.
"Now, they can use that data in a much more context-aware fashion. How is line 1 performing compared to line 2? How is plant 1 performing compared to plant 2?" Wilkins says.
Other vendors have joined GE Fanuc and Wonderware by making historian functionality part of their broader plant-wide integrated suite of software. Rockwell Automation has expanded its FactoryTalk line to include MES, control, visualization, and information management. Rockwell officials say FactoryTalk plant-wide information software eases integration between a manufacturer's information network and its control network. FactoryTalk also features a new service-oriented architecture (SOA); a common set of software services, such as diagnostics; a data historian; and security.
Rockwell Automation also has a joint development agreement with OSIsoft Inc. "Rockwell and OSI together will adapt the OSI product as part of the FactoryTalk suite," says Jan Pingel, product manager for Historian at Rockwell Automation. The OSIsoft PI System gathers, archives, and processes operational data from automation and control systems. The joint development and technology licensed through this agreement will serve as the platform for a tiered, distributed historian strategy. According to Pingel, this approach represents a highly scalable and cost-effective alternative for manufacturers that want to improve insight from each level of their manufacturing system to an entire plant or across the enterprise.
Continuous Process Improvement
Hoyler has come a long way from the days of fumbling around trying to create his own historian. Now, he has a fully functional historian integrated with other factory data sources, providing the link between production and business performance.
These days Hoyler feels like the kid who got the pony on Christmas. "It is nice," he says, an understatement from someone who has spent 16 years working in factory data collection, storage, and reporting.