Your historical data is highly valuable. The
questions to ask is: how does one get the value from their historical data? The first step is making sure that you are
collecting all the data you may possibly need in the future and collecting it at the correct
frequency or resolution, depending on the type of data. For instance, temperature change does not typically change very rapidly meaning that a 10 second frequency would be fine. Pressures or values should be
collected more often, around 1 time per second or faster depending on the
application. Collection rates can be
another detail discussion. The goal is to collect data without missing the key transitions within
the data stream. This old saying speaks exactly what we are trying to portray: “How do you know where you are
going if you don’t know where you have been?”.
The quickest way to make a return on your investment is utilizing a great
trending application. The main purpose
of the trend client is to empower those who use it, by providing easy access
to the data and supplying information to allow good decisions to be made. Ed Stern states that early comments from customers are, “I am
starting to understand what is really happening in my process based on what the
data is telling me, not how I thought it was working.” Many people make assumptions on how the system
may be working, but the data doesn't lie, it provides additional insight and discovery of nuances. A quality trending component displays whether equipment has been installed properly and is running at its fullest efficiency. Additional
data is needed during start-ups to verify correct processes and expectations and to enable quick troubleshooting to make corrections.
Data analysis tools answer questions that had been unsolved before. What you thought was an equipment failure may have been an operator error. What measures can be
put in place to keep it from happening again? How do we achieve better
efficiency without harming the equipment? These should be questions you are asking. If plant personnel is provided with easy to use tools and access to the data, they
can be a great asset to a company’s success. If the data is dependent on someone else or not readily available, productivity is
lost.
The trend tool needs to be intuitive, easy to use, and have the ability to make ad-hoc changes. Predefined charts don’t cut it, they could be a good starting point but the user needs the ability to add
additional tags or trends quickly. You should also have the capability to easily scroll back
in time or look at different time intervals from minutes, weeks, or months of
data. When these capabilities are
present, the user will start asking questions and investigating the process for
efficiency, long-term trends, and can come to intelligent conclusions based on data and not hearsay. This will
lead to the next level of questions and may require utilizing additional
capabilities such as calculated trends and alarm notifications as the user
becomes more dependent on the data and its value. Ease of use means these trending tools can be learned within an hour or so via short training videos. The money saved on the purchase is wasted when time is lost at a week or more of training classes at the supplier's facility.
Everything comes down to empowering the user with the data and tools
needed to be productive. The monitoring of valuable assets and processes along with the investment of historian and trending tools will pay for itself many times over because of the operational information provided to the owners. When dealing with government agencies, a
better trust relationship will be developed when the authorities know that the data
is consistent and provides all the facts. The
ability to allow user annotations contained within the data is also very
helpful to explain data anomalies such as re-calibration of equipment to explain
what happen in the data reports. When
your data management is under control, offering you the answers you need, good
decisions can be made to increase your business productivity instead of being in firefighting mode to keep the business running. Don't toil in vain, which is meaningless and striving after the wind. Choose tools that will improve your company's processes and productivity!
