Use cases for historian modernization
The modernization of OT systems provides numerous advantages to the manufacturing industry. Historian modernization offers improved visibility into the entire production process. This improved visibility helps you make better decisions and improve process efficiency. Furthermore, historian modernization helps you integrate data from multiple locations and systems, providing for a comprehensive view of operations. Improved visibility helps you more accurately and efficiently plan and forecast operations. Additionally, historian modernization can improve the security and help prevent potential threats that might disrupt the manufacturing process.
Organizations frequently use one of these three approaches to address the following use cases. These modernization use cases are common in Industry 4.0 digitization journeys.
Predictive maintenance
Many organizations want to start with predictive equipment maintenance because it can reduce or even eliminate unscheduled downtime of key equipment and machines. This, in turn, can help to increase productivity key performance indicators (KPIs), such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Organizations often don't have their data in the right place to see the desired outcome. When they find a solution, they want to scale it quickly across plants. Having a unified data backbone is critical in this process.
Historian modernization enables the following predictive maintenance use cases:
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Baseline equipment measurements of ambient conditions, such as sound, vibrations, and heat levels
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Provide a single-pane-of-glass view of the plant floor
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View plant operations and global operations
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Monitor sensors on factory equipment
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Categorize and analyze faults across multiple assets and operators in order to identify trends
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Reduce the need for physical inspections by creating and remotely monitoring a digital twin of the physical equipment or machinery
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Use physics-based simulations to model what-if scenarios before changing production equipment or processes
Predictive quality
Automated quality and defect management with near real-time visibility and root cause analysis can improve and eventually predict quality issues. These are common goals for manufacturers. Additionally, you can reduce scrap and warranty claims by monitoring and configuring alerts for key process parameters that affect product quality.
Historian modernization enables the following predictive quality use cases:
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Monitor product output and throughput
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Use computer vision to monitor product quality
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Analyze historical product performance data to determine product quality variance
Manufacturing operations
Manufacturers want to monitor operations across all of their plants and sites in near real-time. Historian modernization helps you integrate data from multiple sites and visualize that data from a single, standardized view with virtual assets across plants.
Historian modernization enables the following manufacturing operations use cases:
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Manage and monitor cycle time by using automated dashboards
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Identify micro-stops, which are minor production losses that occur when equipment stops for a short period of time
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Track output for each manufacturing cell by using automated dashboards that display production KPIs
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Review live performance metrics of plant floor productivity and operations through a dashboard
Sustainability
Sustainability is a top priority for many manufacturers. In addition to the environmental benefits, achieving sustainability goals often reduces production costs. Some regions offer financial or other incentives to organizations that reduce their carbon emissions. By increasing visibility into current production data, you can quickly reduce consumption of electricity or water. For more complex use cases, you can analyze years of historical data and apply advanced AI/ML technologies that provide recommendations for reducing your carbon footprint.
Historian modernization enables the following sustainability use cases:
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Save energy and resources, such as electricity and water
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Reduce the organization's carbon footprint
