Control Engineering & DataWorks present: The Modern-day Manufacturing Dilemma
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The Modern-day Manufacturing Dilemma Bridging the plant floor to enterprise gap requires more than open file transfer capabilities, what's needed is software that can accommodate the custom data structures and concepts specific to the manufacturing environment.
Most manufacturers have already implemented the automation systems they need to enhance production. Future productivity gains won't be achieved via further automation, but by making better use of the information gathered from those systems—and from providing workers at every level in the company with new insight into the manufacturing process to help them make better decisions in real time, from the plant floor production line to the enterprise level. While a lot of people claim to help users access and deploy data for empowering knowledge workers with "actionable" information, they don't extend well into the manufacturing environment. Manufacturing intelligence solutions require more than just standard capabilities because the manufacturing world has unique challenges. For example, the time series data that describes plant and equipment behavior is very different from the transactional data found in traditional business systems. It requires specialized handling, transformation, and loading techniques, as well as specialized visualization and reporting tools. And while control and supervisory systems are implemented in a bottom-up manner, these are the polar opposite of the top-down approach found in business systems like ERP. The resulting gap in the middle makes it difficult to correlate plant data with business decisions. Specialized adaptors and connectors are often required to extract data from control systems. The bottom line is that any data model suitable for manufacturing needs to reflect the equipment, product/material, and people hierarchies found in the manufacturing environment, and must be adaptable to accommodate custom data structures and concepts. The Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence Answer It coexists easily with existing control systems and business applications, exposing the full value of the data locked in these systems by presenting a coherent picture of the manufacturing business through familiar browser and Microsoft Office tools. Its zero-install client software, self-configuring capabilities, and pre-configured reports provide immediate insight into the manufacturing process to drive better decisions, directly impacting business performance. It provides the foundation for a range of manufacturing analytics including:
Try Incuity today. Simply click on this link: www.incuity.com/ From now through November 30, 2005, existing ActiveFactory 8.5, and earlier, customers can download a fully functioning copy of Incuity HDA that allows you to access data from Wonderware's IndustrialSQL Server. Other versions available for purchase let you connect to other popular historians, such as OSIsoft's PI System, General Electric's Proficy Historian, Rockwell Software's RSBizware Historian, and any other OPC HDA-compatible historian.
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