Manufacturing Cloud – Environmental Monitoring in the Cloud – Part 2
February 12, 2013
Cloud-based Manufacturing Monitoring for Visualization and Alerting
As a follow up to last week’s blog on cloud-based manufacturing monitoring, this week’s blog details the unique opportunities that can be leveraged through the scalability, reliability, and flexibility that a cloud-based solution provides in relation to visualization and alerting & alarming.
To review, a cloud-based solution generally offers a more robust feature set then typical in-house options. It lets manufacturers manage and access their manufacturing data whenever and how ever they need to, while lowering the effort required to maintain and monitor the solution. The manufacturing cloud makes an impact in three key areas:
- Effective data collecting,
- Data visualization for rapid analysis, and
- Alerting and alarming for appropriate action.
Manufacturing Cloud for Data Visualization
Once the manufacturing data is collected its time for analysis. Analyzing the data is how companies can make better business decisions. Its how regulators can confirm regulatory compliance. Visualization allows rapid analysis and understanding and is an important part of an entire manufacturing monitoring solution.
Scalability
Using cloud technology doesn’t always imply scalability, but by leveraging modern web-based technologies, complex data visualization and analysis tasks can be performed both by the server and client in parallel to deliver the results in a fraction of time over an in-house system. By having the computing power on tap to perform these complex tasks, more advanced and deeper analysis can be performed to expose the kind of information that companies can leverage for smarter decisions.
Reliability
Access to the collected instrument manufacturing data is critical. By leveraging the always on nature of a cloud solution, the data can be obtained when ever and how ever it is required. Making use of standard hierarchical security restrictions only the people who are allowed to see the data get to see it.
Flexibility
Common data formats, industry standard reporting formats, cross-platform access, is everything that a manufacturing cloud solution provides. It is critical to get access to the data in any way needed and be able to dig into that data so the business questions can be answered in intelligent and informed ways. By providing the tools needed, a cloud solution can give you the results you need in a way you need.
Manufacturing Cloud for Alerting & Alarming
When monitoring manufacturing data that is critical, knowing when that data is out of spec becomes paramount. By providing alerting and alarming on the collected manufacturing data, the people who need to know are alerted in real-time and impactful actions can be taken immediately.
Scalability
When a manufacturer’s operation relies on ensuring the environmental conditions are within spec, it is crucial to know that the right people who need to be notified will be notified at the right time. Multiple maintenance personal? Different campuses? Everyone needs to be notified in the event of a problem? Critical events need alternate forms of notification? When leveraging a cloud solution, you can be confident that the correct people will be notified when they need to be.
Reliability
Being backed by redundant infrastructure, a cloud solution can ensure that notifications are delivered when needed. By monitoring the delivery of notifications, a cloud solution can re-send if required as well as perform escalation based on business rules when a notification fails to reach its recipient.
Flexibility
Having multiple contact methods, 24/7/365 operational status, and end-user configuration; when a notification needs to be delivered, it will be. If changes to set points or contacts need to be made, a simple configuration change ensures that the right people are notified at the right time. Searching and archiving of historical events and access to the manufacturing data that caused those events gives information to help businesses make smart decisions.
Manufacturing Cloud Allows Data Visualization and Alerting to Positively Impact Manufacturing Operations in Real-Time
By using a manufacturing cloud solution to monitor environmental data, a manufacturer can feel confident in knowing that they can collect and easily access manufacturing data. Alerting and alarming makes that manufacturing data sing and allows crucial game-time decisions to help manufacturers achieve operational excellence.