101 Uses for your Process Data Historian

Sue Roche, Software Business Manager, SolutionsPT 

How are you using your process data Historian?  Are you even using it or is it stuck in a cupboard gathering dust? 

A recent survey of 339 data management professionals showed that few organisations are taking advantage of product, customer and other data sources.  Certainly this holds true for manufacturers and infrastructure organisations, many of whom have invested in data historian technology but are not taking advantage of its full capabilities.

I am always amazed by the number of companies who have invested in a Historian as part of a larger installation and then don’t use it and even forget that they have it or what it is capable of.  And yet the possibilities for data capture and building on business intelligence are endless.  Below are just some examples of the many uses that our customers have found to drive business improvement using their Wonderware Data Historian:

• Water industry – Log water quality, pressure, flow and temperature etc. to ensure compliance with government standard
• Metal Fabrication – Collect data from various manufacturing lines to monitor material usage and related costs
• Steel Manufacture – Collect production line data to produce trends that identify problems in the process and interrogate where alarms have come from.
• Harbour Authorities– Collect data from various points down the river to assess what affect water speed, level and flow will have on the harbour
• Electronics – Collect and access quality/SPC data to investigate non-conformances
• Distilleries – Energy monitoring and environmental reporting
• Oil & Gas Production– Remote maintenance monitoring of underwater vessels
• Plastics Manufacture – Collect data from various processes to monitor manufacturing effectiveness, spoilage, downtime etc. and undertake route cause analysis on customer complaints
• Chemical Production – Collect data from all parts of the process to trouble shoot issues and generate environmental reports
• Food Manufacture – Collect data for accident investigations and to ensure replication of product quality
• Pharmaceutical Manufacture – Collect a historical record of data that helps ensure compliance with GMP and 21CFR standards.

So dust off that Historian and have a think about what more you could be doing with it!