As manufacturers increasingly turn to performance metrics and data analytics to optimize operations, Rockwell Automation is making systems that gather, analyze, contextualize and share intelligence easier to design and use. Expanded production-intelligence capabilities in new versions within the FactoryTalk information software suite are available today.
“The right technology tools are now available to provide manufacturing intelligence to companies of all sizes,” said Michael Pantaleano, business manager for Information Software at Rockwell Automation. “Some manufacturers need the rigor and control of full MES offerings, while others desire a manufacturing-intelligence solution to pull specific data together and add context for a quick time-to-value. Our full portfolio of information software allows customers to deploy only what they need to meet their information goals and visualization needs at the right price point, from a simple trend report to a full MES system.”
New manufacturing-intelligence capabilities ease deployment and integration into manufacturers’ operations. Expanded Rockwell Automation manufacturing-intelligence offerings include:
FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI v5.0 Software – FactoryTalk VantagePoint software is the central reporting and analytics product for all the products in the FactoryTalk information software suite. VantagePoint v5.0 software now offers rapid prototyping capabilities, improved reporting functionalities, and greater options for viewing on mobile devices. “With improved design-time functionality, we can more easily add, delete and modify items within the VantagePoint Unified Production Model or UPM,” said Dan Malyszko, director of operations, Malisko Engineering – a Solution Partner for control, process and information within the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork program. “This decreases development time and accelerates overall time-to-value for our customers.”
New reporting capabilities leverage the technology from Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and other tools, to provide full layout-control and report-writer ability. Users can then share this information across their organization using Microsoft SharePoint to improve data-driven decision making and increase collaboration between employees, divisions and locations.
Other new capabilities in VantagePoint software include mobile functionality which gives stakeholders across an enterprise the ability to view data reports on virtually any mobile device, and save their favorite views for future use. New automatic notifications will send text or email alerts to stakeholders when specific changes in plant information require their attention. These notifications can include information directly in the message itself, via attached reports or links to items from the VantagePoint Web server.
FactoryTalk VantagePoint Energy bundle – The VantagePoint Energy bundle, which includes FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI software plus energy-specific models, charts, trends, dashboards and analysis tools, delivers information regarding energy relative to a company’s production systems. This can give plant operators a framework for building an enterprise energy-intelligence solution and driving more strategic energy decisions. With this application, users can aggregate metered energy-consumption data with production assets throughout the organization to start monitoring energy utilization.
FactoryTalk Metrics Software v11.0 – FactoryTalk Metrics software monitors equipment on the plant floor and provides efficiency monitoring, event collection and data analysis to plant operators who need KPIs regarding machine, line and plant performance, including OEE, mean time between failure (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR). The software’s latest version provides expanded performance-management capabilities through a new manual data-entry feature for work cells without automated control systems. Plant operators can now enter data directly into FactoryTalk Metrics software via a Web browser or from their HMI screens. Operators or supervisors with the correct security credentials can also modify event and performance data, providing a more holistic and accurate view of labor and equipment efficiency.
FactoryTalk Historian SE Software v4.0 – The FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition application collects, stores, analyzes and visualizes production data using powerful data capture and storage engines that can be used in process, discrete and hybrid environments. Once logged, this data can then be visualized in VantagePoint software with simple-to-advanced trending options or with added context from other non-time series data sources to help manufacturers manage cost, quality, production, assets and resources more effectively. In addition to visualizing at the VantagePoint layer, FactoryTalk Historian SE software is also available for the operator at the HMI layer, by utilizing connectivity between FactoryTalk View SE and FactoryTalk Historian software. This latest iteration of the software has improved the options for high availability, including resilience over slow or unreliable networks. It also provides faster data-retrieval times and allows five times more data points to be managed by a single server.
