What is Data Historian?

A Data Historian is a program that archives and retrieves data automatically by time. It stores information in a database, which has the ability to store vast amounts of data efficiently. Time series information can be shown in the form of trends or table data over time ranges. For example, you could show a trend for the last day, 8 hours, or the past year and have an HMI SCADA platform visualize trend and alarm data.

Data Historian Software are used in many different industries for a variety of tasks according to the company's needs:

• Manufacturing site to record instrument readings
• This app allows you to monitor your production's process & performance at any given time, in order to identify any problem areas and make adjustments accordingly. It also assists you with keeping a track of the history of your products and ensuring quality is consistent. Finally, it helps you control manufacturing costs by providing insight on current pricing trends.
• The purpose of this center is to record data on device performance in the server environment, and also monitor networks (x time taken to send data over a link, port status), and applications. The center will also track heavy equipment such as race cars or construction machines.

Data Historians can track what kind of activity?

A tool for observing trends and changes in data over time by recording it from one or more locations and analyzing the data gathered. You're able to monitor & track any measurement. It'll help you determine if the asset is operating efficiently, what profitability it can bring, and where production might be faltering. It can record any type of number. It can be whole numbers, floats with a fraction, binary (on or off) or strings.

A data historian can help you record different kinds of data points. Some examples include location, time, and person.

Analog readings: temperature, pressure, flowrates, levels, weights, CPU temperature, mixer speed, fan speed. The following devices measure and control digital signals from systems such as valves, limit switches, and motors: sensors, actuators, and indicators. Product Info: Product ID, Batch ID, Material ID, Raw material lot ID Quality Info: Process and Product Limits, Custom Limits Alarm Info: out-of-limits signals, return-to-normal signals Aggregate data: average, standard deviation, CPK, moving average.

Time Series databases are critical to the efficient storage and retrieval of historical data, but this time series data becomes far more powerful and accessible when it is connected to an asset or equipment hierarchy.

Data collected from multiple sources can be compiled into a single platform for analysis.

Information collected within a facility can come from many different sources. Such sources include, but are not limited to:

• PLCs, which control a finite part of the process (ex. one machine or one processing unit).
• DCS (Distributed Control System) that can control an entire facility
• proprietary interface provides direct data from the instrument removed from the control system.
• In order to measure the levels of minerals in a sample, one method to use is to record readings from a manual gauge.
• HMI SCADA platforms that visualize, trend and alarm data

Tackles the problem of disorganized information.

Over time

One of the more obvious strengths of a data historian is that it can correlate data over time by adapting to business needs in real-time and producing reports instantly. It includes:

• First shift compared to 2nd or 3rd shift
• One team compared to another
• One group of raw material compared to another
• One continuous production batch compared to another
• One time of year compared to another

Compare Different Areas and Plants

Data historians can be used separately, but are at their most useful when teamed up with other data historians over large sites, across departments of a company or for many companies. One could investigate the root cause of a production problem as insufficient brine supply to production equipment, or investigate two similar units to figure out the reason for differences in performance.

Data historians answer many different types of questions, including these:

• Has the machine has been running for the last 24 hours.?
• How much energy did a piece of equipment use during the last shift?
• How much product was created yesterday?

Data Visibility

You can have visibility at the level of specific instruments, or you can track the performance of an entire organization. The farther back you stand from the process, the broader your perspective will be and this can be helpful for planning purposes.

• Engineers can help you monitor your equipment to keep it running and make sure that it doesn't need any repairs.
• Monitor a process, a set of equipment in a unit, so it has the right conditions: right temperature, right pressure, etc.
• One possible way to monitor your batch production is to overlay 'golden batches' over suspect batch runs for comparison and analysis.
• Monitor the production within a given unit to maintain the product quality within the process capability.
• It's important to monitor your operation as it runs, and to ensure that it stays running without any issues.
• Monitor all of the aspects of the facility to ensure the optimal utilization of resources and the reduction of waste.
• To maintain high standards and work on continuous improvement, you'll need to keep your facilities as consistent as possible.
• Monitor your vendors and make sure they provide you with the correct quality and plenty of stock.
• Monitor customers' perception of your product's quality as it changes and vary production based on those changes
• Allow real-time data to be seamlessly integrated with your other financial & business systems.
• Blackbox recorders can be used in case of a breach. They were originally created to record information that is not looked at unless there is an incident, allowing company heads to fix any problems before they spread.
• I can provide input for designed experiments, prototype production systems, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Organizing and making your data accessible can lead to faster, more informed decisions that will make sure you're efficient enough and of high quality. This will help you improve the organization all round. It can often be difficult to bring a new product or significantly change an old one. Data historians are responsible for making expertise gained from prior failures of other products disappear which will allow you to confidently move forward.

There are many different situations in which a data historian is an invaluable part of the team.

• On Demand manufacturing
• Plant and building energy management
• Batch, continuous, and transitional manufacturing processes

What are the advantages of a Data Historian?

• Data acquisition interfaces can be used with devices that are OPC compliant. This includes: industrial equipment, control systems.
• Data acquisition ensures your data is available; redundancy means that data can be restored even if something goes wrong. Store forward and failover features ensure you're always connected to the server.
• Data collected at speeds of 15,000-50,000 samples per second and with time intervals of sub one-second measurements.
• For storing data on your device efficiently, find a suitable compression tool and enable it. The system will then discard any information that isn't needed, such as those with low worth.
• Archival storage is a much better structure for storage than a relational database. It allows you to store 20, 30 years' worth of data all in the same place and viewable online.
• Data Security by Role.

A hybrid configuration with a Data Historian and a Relational Database would maximize the usefulness of your data.

Data Historians are designed to store relational data efficiently, while relational databases are designed to store time series data. However, if you want to have the best of all worlds under a single software package that can combine information seamlessly and automatically from all the different types of personal data, then you may want to find a solution like Empowered Automation Solutions.