A leading Historian vendor sampled their customers with the question:

“What are the most important uses of a Historian in your business?”

The results are interesting, typical, and here is the Ocean Data Systems interpretation.

#1 – Obviously, a Historian is a long term repository of data. It stands to reason that a Historian is the go-to when Diagnostics and Troubleshooting (D&T) is in order. With data at your disposal and a variety of vendor tools to enable ad-hoc queries, trending and analysis, every company should benefit from a Historian for Diagnostics and Troubleshooting.

#2 – Regulatory Reporting. This is an interesting one. Reports that you have to have are number two in the minds of Historian users. These are Compliance Reports, a category of reporting that is mandatory for the various market regulations and agencies. They can be EPA, FDA, LEEDS, AMP, GAMP, AMS-2750 and many, many more. Without these reports, you’re out of business. BUT, they aren’t core to running your business better. They are just the paperwork that needs to get done for Compliance purposes.

#3 – Identifying Process Improvement Opportunities – This is another category of reporting, the Performance Reports. Performance Reports are the ones you would like to have in order to run your business better. You want to improve quality, increase throughput, reduce downtime – costs and gain agility.

#4 – #5 – #6 – Production/Cost Accounting, Downtime Tracking and Energy Consumption are additional Performance Reports, only focusing on particular application areas.

What’s interesting about this line-up is the order. If you’re managing your business most effectively, then your Historian should be used to give you a competitive edge first, then be the go-to for Diagnostics and Troubleshooting, and finally be the foundation for paperwork (Compliance Reports), to be submitted as part of being in business.

Today’s order is just plain wrong!

But why is this the order of the day? Simple, because of the tools that are currently available to make sense out of that ocean of data just aren’t easy enough to use. You are buried in data and just don’t have an easy way to turn it into actionable results. When there’s a problem, you have the means to troubleshoot. You’ve also spent the time and effort to generate your compliance reports, but it was – and is so painful, that users recognize that as the second most important reason for having a Historian. Most Historian users are performing reporting with tools like Microsoft Excel, SAP Crystal Reports and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). If these are your reporting tools, then it’s no wonder that you’re focusing on Diagnostics and Troubleshooting and only using a Historian when there’s a problem.

You need a simpler way to generate performance information and it isn’t in the form of advanced applications for Downtime Analysis, Production/Cost Accounting Tools or Energy Analytics. You need a tool that will turn your Historian data into a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will become the basis for day to day operations. Once that’s in place, once you’re generating your Performance Reports and Dashboards and sharing that information widely across your organization, then and only then can you effectively make use of layered advanced analytics.

This is where Dream Report comes in. Dream Report is the next logical addition to any Historian. It bridges the gap between using a Historian with simple D&T tools, and will becomes the basis of information to drive the need for advanced analytics. Dream Report is changing the paradigm with respect to reports and dashboards. We’re in the 21st century and there’s no place for programming, scripting or extensive system integration with respect to turning raw data into KPI Reports and Dashboards. You need a tool that empowers those that need information to generate it on their own, no justifications, no authorizations and no scheduling. If you want a report, just create it. All the reports you want to have and not just the compliance reports you have to have. That’s the promise of Dream Report.

Download Dream Report from our Website, install it and generate your first report, all in 15 minutes. You’ll be generating reports, dashboards and delivering actionable information the very first day.

Compliance Reports – Of course you get those with Dream Report. Those, you can take for granted. It’s the Performance Reports that will make your business more competitive and that needs to be the number one reason to install a Historian.

 

Research Source:
http://www.techvalidate.com/product-research/invensys-wonderware-manufacturing-operations-software/charts/586-10E-747