TimothyMoulder
Member
Hi guys!
/Anecdote Start/
About a year ago, I set up a small data aquisition system with one machine, using a $200 OPC software package over the plant intranet and an Access database. The front end was Excel, and I did a pretty fair job of presenting things like cycle times, output rates, fault tracking etc.
Management thought it was nice, used some of the data to validate other work being done on the machine, and soon after the whole thing was dropped and forgotten.
Flash forward to present...
My mechanical counterpart and I just completed a machine rebuild, and the old political "is it really running as fast as it should be?" question surfaced. This is particularly important to us, since we have new management in our facility, and as the first finished project of the year, we want to present it as a complete success.
So, I pull out my dusty data collection notes and set up a similiar system as I did a year ago on our new machine (Unitronics V280 with database and Ethernet). I added some refinements, set up a new front end, printed out a few shifts' worth of data and went into our regular meeting with the bosses.
Now, I should point out that the data proved our machine was running at rate. I point that out because, as soon as the managers took one look at our data, our particular machine was completely forgotten.
Question #1: "How did you get this data?"
Question #2: "How fast can you set this up on evey other machine in the plant?"
/Anecdote End/
Anyhow, my mostly-brushed off SCADA OPC project of '03 has now become the new company savior of '05, and I'm calling integrators and digging into this while trying to keep from smirking.
All of which brings me to the question part of this essay:
Obviously, we want to collect all the basics -
production rate
cycle time
uptime
downtime
fault time
cycle counts
parts counts
fault counts
fault history (sampled on faults)
1. Are there any other types of data you consider "basic"? If you were designing a SCADA system, what would you want to see?
2. We're taking a hard look at RSView (me, an AB product!) Any comments, for or against?
3. Any particular pitfalls you can suggest that we avoid? Stories of your experiences with this sort of thing are very very welcome
Thanks alot, and I look forward to your suggesstions.
TM
/Anecdote Start/
About a year ago, I set up a small data aquisition system with one machine, using a $200 OPC software package over the plant intranet and an Access database. The front end was Excel, and I did a pretty fair job of presenting things like cycle times, output rates, fault tracking etc.
Management thought it was nice, used some of the data to validate other work being done on the machine, and soon after the whole thing was dropped and forgotten.
Flash forward to present...
My mechanical counterpart and I just completed a machine rebuild, and the old political "is it really running as fast as it should be?" question surfaced. This is particularly important to us, since we have new management in our facility, and as the first finished project of the year, we want to present it as a complete success.
So, I pull out my dusty data collection notes and set up a similiar system as I did a year ago on our new machine (Unitronics V280 with database and Ethernet). I added some refinements, set up a new front end, printed out a few shifts' worth of data and went into our regular meeting with the bosses.
Now, I should point out that the data proved our machine was running at rate. I point that out because, as soon as the managers took one look at our data, our particular machine was completely forgotten.
Question #1: "How did you get this data?"
Question #2: "How fast can you set this up on evey other machine in the plant?"
/Anecdote End/
Anyhow, my mostly-brushed off SCADA OPC project of '03 has now become the new company savior of '05, and I'm calling integrators and digging into this while trying to keep from smirking.
All of which brings me to the question part of this essay:
Obviously, we want to collect all the basics -
production rate
cycle time
uptime
downtime
fault time
cycle counts
parts counts
fault counts
fault history (sampled on faults)
1. Are there any other types of data you consider "basic"? If you were designing a SCADA system, what would you want to see?
2. We're taking a hard look at RSView (me, an AB product!) Any comments, for or against?
3. Any particular pitfalls you can suggest that we avoid? Stories of your experiences with this sort of thing are very very welcome
Thanks alot, and I look forward to your suggesstions.
TM