Leverage Your Data and Organize It in Dashboards

Rockwell data editorial 400

April 18, 2019

By: Rob Prashad, Rockwell Automation

A couple of years ago was the year of aligning data and analytics with the larger business strategy, according to Gartner. It’s still early into 2019, and the amount of data is continuing to grow without any signs of slowing. So how is that alignment coming along?

A digital-first strategy has received fresh life thanks to offerings that can enhance connectivity to every source of information while normalizing all that data for use anywhere.  Numerous applications are now more readily available, thanks to connectivity and normalization, and one I’ve been working on recently has gained a lot of interest from users across organizations: the plant overview dashboard.

Dashboards are the user-friendly displays we use to present data and analytics in useful ways, depending on what information matters most. We’re starting to rely more on them because they help us better understand what’s coming out of our machines, lines and facilities.

So, what’s interesting about the plant overview dashboard?

Make Insights Meaningful

The plant overview dashboard provides a valuable opportunity to industrial producers because it displays a general set of information that a specific persona will find significant.

A manager, for instance, would benefit from knowing the number of shipped products, equipment performance, energy consumption and other indicators like target production performance.

The image to the left demonstrates all the information that’s available in our Mighty Q demo.

As you can see, overview dashboards collect plant information and organize it into simple graphs, so you can quickly capture and comprehend insights.

A brief look at the lower right graph reveals the Chicago plant has the lowest daily energy consumption among the three plants. Using this information, the plant manager can request users to search for the cause of energy consumption and identify what and how the other plants are doing better.

What Are Your Expectations?

What are the real benefits gained with an overview dashboard? Setting and meeting goals is important for every organization, but that requires knowing what to expect. By having information within reach, users can simplify the process of establishing benchmarks, using their insight into operations as context to help determine what equipment and production levels are expected.

Once those benchmarks are set, thanks to historical data, it becomes possible to identify problems and discrepancies within your facilities. In the event of an issue, such as a decrease in overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), an enterprise user can dig into what’s impacting OEE. Having an idea of what’s causing the change helps give direction to those on the plant floor and resolve issues before they negatively impact production.

Dashboard overviews are especially useful if you have multiple plants because they can provide a collective view into performance, regardless of geographic location. Meaning, the data is represented in a way that allows you to compare plants and keep track of their operations and productivity in real-time.

For example, in the dashboard to the left, three different plants (Chicago, Brussels and Singapore) are producing Mighty Q cookies. You see performance metrics such as OEE and yield across all three plants. Currently, the Singapore plant is outperforming the other two Mighty Q locations.

This information is crucial because it can prompt the question: why is Chicago’s yield low? Or: what is Singapore doing that could be replicated at Chicago and Brussels? Other questions may involve daily goals and energy consumption.

As mentioned above, users aren’t restricted to the plant overview level. From that one screen they can go deeper, exploring information related to what’s happening at each plant or which line is causing output to decline.

A maintenance technician, for instance, could start with the overview dashboard before checking performance analytics to identify which specific oven is malfunctioning. With this information, you can pinpoint exactly where optimizations and improvements should be made.

More Than Mighty Q’s

Dashboards are beneficial across industries. While the previous example is related to food and beverage, dashboard overviews are also helpful in oil and gas, mining and more. They’re also valuable to many roles across an industry. So, whether you’re a plant manager, upper management or even HR, there is a dashboard for you.

Similar to overview dashboards, it’s also possible to create plant safety dashboards. Safety dashboards report daily safety events, non-compliant safety devices and notify users when safety devices are nearing end of life. Next month, Jeff Schmelebeck will tell you more about safety dashboards.

And finally, plant overview dashboards like this one are possible because of the FactoryTalk InnovationSuite, powered by PTC. This technology extracts information from the model and presents it in mashups using ThingWorx. If you have questions or thoughts, please reach out, I’d love to discuss.

Source

Related Articles


Changing Scene


Sponsored Content
The Easy Way to the Industrial IoT

The way to the Industrial IoT does not have to be complicated. Whether access to valuable data is required or new, data-driven services are to be generated, Weidmuller enables its customers to go from data to value the easy way. Weidmuller’s comprehensive and cutting-edge IIoT portfolio applies to greenfield and brownfield applications. Weidmuller offers components and solutions from data acquisition, data pre-processing, data communication and data analysis.

Visit Weidmuller’s Industrial IoT Portfolio.


ADVANCED Motion Controls Takes Servo Drives to New Heights (and Depths) with FlexPro Extended Environment Product Line

Advanced Motion Controls is proud to announce the addition of six new CANopen servo drives with Extended Environment capabilities to their FlexPro line. These new drives join AMC’s existing EtherCAT Extended Environment FlexPro drives, making the FlexPro line the go-to solution for motion control applications in harsh environments.

Many motion control applications take place in conditions that are less than ideal, such as extreme temperatures, high and low pressures, shocks and vibrations, and contamination. Electronics, including servo drives, can malfunction or sustain permanent damage in these conditions.

Read More


Service Wire Co. Announces New Titles for Key Executives

Bruce Kesler and Mark Gatewood have been given new titles and responsibilities for Service Wire Co.

Bruce Kesler has assumed the role of Senior Director – Business Development. Bruce will be responsible for Service Wire’s largest strategic accounts and our growing Strategic Accounts Team.

Mark Gatewood has been promoted to the role of Vice President – Sales & Marketing. In this role, Gatewood will lead the efforts of Service Wire Company’s entire sales and marketing organization in all market verticals.

Read More


Tri-Mach Announces the Purchase of an Additional 45,000 sq ft. Facility

Tri-Mach Elmira Facility

Recently, Tri-Mach Inc. was thrilled to announce the addition of a new 45,000 sq ft. facility. Located at 285 Union St., Elmira, ON, this facility expands Tri-Mach’s capabilities, allowing them to better serve the growing needs of their customers.

Positioning for growth, this additional facility will allow Tri-Mach to continue taking on large-scale projects, enhance product performance testing, and provide equipment storage for their customers. The building will also be the new home to their Skilled Trades Centre of Excellence.

Read More


JMP Parent Company, CONVERGIX Acquires AGR Automation, Expanding Global Reach

Convergix Automation Solutions has completed the acquisition of AGR Automation (“AGR”), a UK-based provider of custom, high-performance automation design and systems integration primarily to the life sciences industry.

Following Convergix’s acquisitions of JMP Solutions in August 2021 and Classic Design in February 2022, AGR marks the third investment in Crestview’s strategy to build Convergix into a diversified automation solutions provider targeting the global $500+ billion market, with a particular focus on the $70 billion global systems integration and connectivity segments. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Read More


Latest Articles

  • Implementing Functional Safety Requirements

    Implementing Functional Safety Requirements

    The Safety Functional Requirements Specification (SFRS; sometimes referred to as SRS or Safety Requirements Specification) is the plan for the safety controls on a machine and is the second step of the safety lifecycle. The SFRS document serves as a framework for the safety control system design, is informed by prior work done in the… Read More…

  • From Endress+Hauser, 24/7 Digital, Plant-Wide Health Monitoring for Rockwell Systems Optimizes Workflows and Processes

    From Endress+Hauser, 24/7 Digital, Plant-Wide Health Monitoring for Rockwell Systems Optimizes Workflows and Processes

    Endress+Hauser’s Asset Health Monitoring Solution–Rockwell Edition, now available for installation, provides operators with a centralized, digital overview of plant-wide device health to avoid unscheduled shutdowns and accelerate troubleshooting. It not only presents early visibility of problematic devices but distinguishes itself by adding likely causes and remedies to such a report so problems can be fixed… Read More…