Historians

Making Sense of the Enterprise Energy Dashboard

Dave Greenfield — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:13:13 +0000

Energy monitoring means different things to different companies. As a result, if you are interested in creating an energy usage dashboard at your facility, knowing what to measure and how to measure it can be confusing. Here’s a helpful outline to follow.

Turn Data into Information with Manufacturing Intelligence

Adam Madison — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:54:53 +0000

Manufacturing intelligence systems offer manufacturers access to key performance indicators for increased troubleshooting, product tracking and downtime management. However, implementation of these systems requires careful planning to eliminate risk of information overload.

Change Management Software Adds Support for PC Backup

Peter Cleaveland — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 06:01:00 +0000

The AutoSave PC backup & recovery module allows plant floor employees to manage their PC backups through the same application that manages device changes.

Kennedy Space Center Gets Smart About Power

Renee Robbins Bassett — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:33:47 +0000

New enterprise historian and trending software will collect and log data for approximately 150,000 real-time data points from power quality meters, protection relays and PLCs throughout the complex.

The Art and Science of Production Knowledge

George Shurtleff — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 19:34:47 +0000

For the most part, database issues are left the to IT department. But with the volume of production data typically residing in numerous databases in a manufacturing facility, engineers and operators need to be more aware of the databases that house their critical production information.

GE Tackles Industrial Big Data

Dave Greenfield — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:48:34 +0000

By combining Proficy Historian 5.0 with Proficy Historian Analysis, GE Intelligent Platforms looks to address the strategic side of the plant floor-to-enterprise divide.

Production Knowledge: SQL or NoSQL

George Shurtleff — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:01:38 +0000

Just as the debate between Mac or PC rages on, and polarized opinions persist over which industrial network protocol is the best, a new technology debate is breaking out of the clustered ranks of IT developers and into the user realm.

Manufacturing Databases Explained

George Shurtleff — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:28:06 +0000

Even the briefest examination of databases can cause your head to spin if you’re not up to speed on the different kinds of databases and how they operate.

Warehouse Handheld Computers with HTML5 Technology

GrantGerke — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:20:25 +0000

Intermec Inc. looks to gain business leverage in the warehouse distribution space by offering select, handheld mobile computers with HTML5 browser technology, providing greater interoperability with Distribution Center software platforms.

Historian Best Practices: Distilling the Truth

George Shurtleff — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:10:24 +0000

Historians enable deep insight into the behavior of a process at a given point in time, but depending on which member of the automation team you are, you may not know enough about the data you’re capturing or how to optimize its use.

GE Energy’s iCenter: A Historian on Steroids

Renee Robbins Bassett — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:17:57 +0000

This case history describes the data infrastructure supporting GE Energy’s iCenter operations management service center, a 24x7 operation that manages an enterprise-size data historian of more than 2 million tags coming from 25 sites around the world.

Software Historian Essentials

Renee Robbins Bassett — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:58:37 +0000

In an exclusive interview with Automation World, an applications engineer with global engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company M+W Group answers questions about software historians in general, and Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk Historian in particular.

Uses of Historian Data: A Tutorial

Renee Robbins Bassett — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:26:00 +0000

A systems integrator explains what software historians are and why production plants need a repository of real-time industrial data.

Performance Based Industrial Infrastructures

Renee Robbins Bassett — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:11:07 +0000

Performance Based Industrial Infrastructures This 5-page whitepaper by Peter Martin, vice president, Invensys Systems Inc. discusses the changing role of plant historians. These industrial databases are evolving from reporting- and decision-based structures to become performance-based structures that support real-time industrial decision-making at the highest (enterprise) levels.

Tips on How to Use Historical Data

George Shurtleff — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Struggling to fully use historian data? Take advice from these professionals.

Historian Resources and Links

George Shurtleff — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Need more information on historians? These in-depth resources are available.

Is Historian Data Valid and How Do I Know?

Renee Robbins Bassett — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:04:40 +0000

Data historians are repositories of vital information, but how do you manage that data to ensure its integrity? Automation World went in search of practical advice on how process industry users are managing historian data today.

Primacy of Information

Gary Mintchell — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:17:39 +0000

A confluence of trends around mobility, always-on networks and information is having a tremendous effect upon automation and manufacturing.

Proficy Plant Applications v6.1 Embodies Best Practices

Lara Krieger — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:27:59 +0000

GE Intelligent Platforms announces the availability of its latest manufacturing software solution, Proficy Plant Applications 6.1.

Software Simplifies Analysis and Reporting of Engineering Data

Peter Cleaveland — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:44:12 +0000

DIAdem 2012 is a unified software environment that aids in locating, inspecting, visualizing, analyzing and reporting on data.

Operations Management Platform Lays Foundation for Migration to Windows Azure

Gary Mintchell — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 09:52:29 +0000

Savigent Software Inc. (www.savigent.com), the Minnetonka-based company specializing in event-driven manufacturing operations management software, released Catalyst Platform version 4.0. The updated version delivers significant enhancements to the software, most notably a fully managed infrastructure for the development, deployment and management of composite applications. Catalyst Platform also provides a central repository for revision controlled management of composite applications and a new, highly scalable Catalyst Bus with real-time information access via OData services.

Online Database Supplies Device Master Data

Peter Cleaveland — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:36:01 +0000

The EPLAN Data Portal 2.1 has added data, manufacturers and functions.

Software Upgrade Wrings Actionable Information from Water Plant

George Shurtleff — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:30:36 +0000

A Canadian water wastewater operation that encompasses six separate treatment plants recognized its need to increase visibility into existing systems and spot trends to help them predict production needs.

Automated Report Generation and Data Analysis Software

Peter Cleaveland — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:50:27 +0000

XLReporter Version 10.0 provides data entry management and reporting from text files.

Iconics Products Compatible with SQL Server 2012

epakowski — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:14:25 +0000

Iconics, supplier of HMI/SCADA, energy management and manufacturing intelligence software for MS Windows operating systems, announced compatibility with MS SQL Server 2012.