SCADA Systems and SCADA Software – Automated Report Generation for ALL Applications

SCADA Software making up SCADA Systems in all markets, make their data available to report generation software through industry standards or proprietary interfaces.  The most common standards for SCADA Systems would include ODBC (a Database Standard) and OPC (an automation industry standard). SCADA Software may also support vendor specific proprietary interfaces.

Communication Drivers connect Reporting Tools to SCADA Systems

Industrial Report Generation Software will support SCADA Software interfaces through ODBC, OPC or proprietary interfaces.  These are typically referred to as Drivers.  The purpose of the Driver is to provide easily configurable connectivity to the Real-time Data, History Data and Alarm/Event messages that the SCADA applications generate for Reporting Tools.

Types of SCADA System Data and Uses

Drivers that Connect Dream Report to SCADA Systems

Real-time Data

Standards such as OPC-DA and MODBUS, or proprietary interfaces offer access to SCADA System Real-time Data.  Real-time Data is used to Trigger events in automated report generation or for use in snapshot reports (reports and dashboards of current conditions).  Events fall into categories such as alarm triggers – generate a report based on an alarm, status triggers – generate a report when something is on or off, or above or below levels, and batch triggers – generate a report at the end of a batch.  In all cases, triggers are configured in the Report Generator Software and operations thereafter are automatic.

History Data

History Data is logged by the SCADA System and accessed via proprietary interfaces or standards such as ODBC and OPC HDA.  History Data will provide greater depths of data for time or batch-based analytics.  Triggers for reports and dashboards will begin the process of querying data from the SCADA System, analyzing that data, formatting the results and generating the final output as either a report or a dashboard.

Alarm and Event Data

Alarm and Event Data is typically logged to a relational database or to a SCADA Alarm / Event Log file or files.   Alarm and Event data is then accessed by the Reporting Tools /Reporting Software via standards such as OPC AE, ODBC or proprietary interfaces.  Better report generators will then perform alarm and event analysis in addition to just reporting.  Alarm and event analysis will include categorizing information by user, equipment or source and will organize results by priority or counts.  Many industries have requirements for alarm reporting and the ANSI/ISA 18.2 Standard is a great example.

Alternatives for Industrial Report Generation

There are two schools of thoughts for automated report generation from SCADA Systems.  The first leverages typical business intelligence (BI) software such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, or SAP Crystal Reports for industrial reports and dashboards.  The drawback with this solution is that these reporting tools don’t understand industrial data as archived by SCADA Software, and don’t understand the analytics that need to be performed on industrial data.  As a result, the user needs to perform a great deal more data manipulation, usually through programming and scripting, to generate a result.  Also, these software tools generally do not offer the 24x7x365 automation of purpose-built solutions.

The second approach is to use Report Generation Software designed specifically for Industrial Report Generation and understanding Automation Data.  Even here, there are two schools of thought.  The first is to create extensions to augment BI tools such as Excel, improving its automation, better integrating it with industrial data sources, and improving its formatting ability to generate reports and dashboards.  The second approach is to is to develop a solution, purpose built for Industrial Reports and Dashboards.

Dream Report – Purpose Built for SCADA System and SCADA Software Report Generation

Dream Report is the world’s leading solution for Industrial Reports and Dashboards.  Recommended and Resold by more automation suppliers than any other solution, Dream Report has become the standard for all markets and all applications.  This award-winning report generation software offers over 80 interfaces for Real-time, History and Alarm / Event data.  Introduced in 2005, Dream Report has been through over 20 revisions and has been tailored for every market and virtually every application.

Water and Waste Water EPA Reports from your SCADA System

EPA Regulatory Reports are one of the critical applications performed with industrial data from your SCADA System.  Dream Report has been enhanced over time to generate all the information required for Water and Waste Water EPA Compliance Reports.

Learn more about Dream Report for Water and Waste Water

21CFRPart11 Requirements in the Life Sciences Markets – SCADA in Pharmaceutical and Biotech Applications

The requirements to meet 21 CFR Part 11 regulations impact the features of report generation software by requiring an audit trail, enhanced security, version management and electronic signatures.  Dream Report delivers a specific 21CFRPart11 option designed to meet these requirements.

Learn more about Dream Report 21CFRPart11 Applications

SCADA Systems in Power, Chemical, Oil and Gas Markets require ANSI/ISA 18.2 Alarm Management

Dream Report offers extensive functionality to perform automated alarm analytics to meet the monitoring and management requirements in ISA 18.2.  SCADA Software generally creates alarm and event messages, logs them and then relies on Dream Report for advanced alarm analytics.

Learn more about Dream Report and ISA 18.2

Other SCADA Software Applications in General Manufacturing Applications

The standard analytics included with Dream Report easily address the myriad of general-purpose applications found throughout the industrial automation market.  The generation of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reports and dashboards are included with the purpose-built analytics in Dream Report.  Additional functions support Downtime, Run-time, Overall Operational Efficiency (OEE), Totalizations, Percent Utilization, Manual Data Entry, Energy Totalizations, and much more.

Dream Report is the ideal solution to be added to any SCADA System or SCADA Software for the purpose of advanced analytics or continuous improvement.

Download Dream Report and Test Drive it with Your Data

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