Getting More Out of your Historian – Part 1
Posted by John Clemons on May 17, 2012 @ 7:42 amYou probably already have a data historian of some kind. And, if you don’t, get one! The data historian collects some data and probably gives you some reports and what not and that’s probably about it. It works pretty well. No one ever thinks about it. It just does its job and not much else.
That’s pretty typical for most people and their historians. But, it barely touches the hem of the garment to what a historian can do. Data historians are amazing tools and can do so much more than just collect a little bit of data and give you a few reports. Let me give you some ideas.
First of all, a data historian is really good at collecting a lot of data, not just a little data, and from a whole bunch of different sources, not just a few. Most historians get installed to address a particular need, as part of a particular project, and they do that well but never get beyond that initial job.
But, if you think about it, you probably have lots and lots of data out there that you may not even know that you have. That’s right. I’ve seen it time and time again, people have data in small PLC’s, in local HMI’s, and so on, that they don’t know they have and have no way to do anything with. Well. It’s not complicated. Run a cable to that PLC or HMI (or better yet, hook it up wireless) and put that data into the historian.
Wow. Now you’ve got a lot more data. Actually, data you’ve always had. But, now, you can do something with it. Expand some reports. Create some new reports. With the data in the historian now it’s in a place where it can be used and lots of people can get at it and use it when they need to.
And, best of all, when there’s a problem, now you have the data to take a look at what’s really going on out there. So, find that data and get it into the historian and make it earn its keep.
It’s actually pretty easy. And, you really, probably have lots of data out there that’s not being used that you might not even know you have. So, get out there and find that data and get it into your historian. Then everyone can see it, everyone can use it, and that’s all good all the way around.
Getting More Out of your Historian – Part 1,
While you’re at it, go ahead and define some KPI’s for your operation, calculate those from your raw data that you’re now collecting, and historize those – then create some nice daily and monthly reports that will really impress your plant manager!
Data is useless unless you do something with it. The best use of data is as a basis for rational, informed decision making.
It’s been my experience that what’s stored in most data historian packages is treated just like the old strip chart and, if you’re old enough round chart, recorders. These only got pulled out when there was a problem and then mostly to see just when it started and how bad it got. With those devices the user could pretty much just see that the measurement had spiked or that it started to paint the chart. The technology involved simply didn’t show much more so if your Operations staff came from that era they may not realize that there’s a lot more they can glean from a modern data historian package.
With paper charts we’d line them up to see what the impact of the upset had on a number of variables but we were dependent on the recorders being synchronized to make sure we weren’t misreading the data. With the data historians the data is time stamped as it’s stored so there are no issues in comparing data. There was no zoom in feature for a paper chart unless you count a magnifying glass. There was no export feature to do mathematical analysis of the data. There was also nothing to tell you that the data was even valid. So much more is available now yet companies are still barely scratching the surface of what can the done with what they have.