dataPARC – Intuitive Powerful and Connected
A lot goes into running a mill, plant or other process operation and a lot depends on running these operations efficiently. We can all agree that those in charge, Plant managers, process engineers and other relevant roles, have a lot on their plates and most of the time are working many hours to get everything done. Profitability and efficiency are dependent on a smooth operation. In order to run an efficient plant operation, one must be able to access to a large amount of information from the various assets and machinery that comprise the operation. Systems are installed to collect time relevant data in order to evaluate what is happening in the process. Successful operations depend on the ability to locate a problem if there is one, as well as access and manipulate data in the way that best suits the person who wants to see it in order to effectively problem solve. dataPARC simply put, is the very best data visualization and analysis software out there for the process industry.
“Well, that’s easy to say,” you may think, “but prove it.” No problem! We can prove it and our tagline says it best: Intuitive. Powerful. Connected. These three words and concepts accurately and effectively describe our robust, easy to use product and we can explain starting with our first word:
Intuitive
Getting information quickly in the process industry is important. dataPARC’s interface is easy to use and include the following features that make getting the data you need fast and easy
Drag and drop trending – Add tags to a display like Trend is easy and intuitive. Find the desired tag in our Tag Browser and then drag them onto a display to add the tags. Users can also drag tags from one display to another. This is a great way to build a troubleshooting Trend from a large process graphic.
Right click menu – Every display in PARCview has a right click menu to access additional features. This includes intuitive features like looking at limits for a tag, using Playback to see how a graphic looks with past data or quickly trending a group of tags from Centerline or Manual Data Entry.
Time syncing of multi trends – Choose the desired time span on a trend and quickly synchronize that time span across all other trends in the same multi trend display. Auto-sync functionality allows the user make multiple changes to the time span of a trend and keep all trends in sync.
Other effective and intuitive features include being able to launch one our charts (XY, Histogram, Pareto, etc.) from Trend, being able to add additional runs to Centerline with one click and quickly being able to create PARCview alarms from established limits.
A customer in Longview, WA describes their intuitive successful experience with dataPARC’s PARCview below
Friday night going into Saturday morning (just before the 4th of July 4-day weekend), at 2:00 AM, a Capstone subject matter expert got a call on a process problem and the customer was going to have to shut down equipment. The Capstone team member immediately got on the system & started looking at trend data. Through the interaction of people and quick/good access to the right data, a solution was found to keep the process running without shutdown. The team Identified items for fix on next turn around.
The customer’s results were the following: saved a 26-hr shutdown, saved 15 engineers from taking time away from families on a long holiday weekend to come into the plant, increased safety, protected equipment, solved the problem within 2 hours, no production loss, Conveyed transferrable knowledge quickly. Without dataPARC the customer could not have collaborated and moved quickly through trends: zoom in, find the problem, compare, build new trends, sync, etc. It would have taken hours more to resolve the issue. Without the confidence that dataPARC delivers, the customer could have put it off until next week, could have shut down the unit and or called the 15 staff in from vacation.
Powerful
It’s not an overstatement to say that dataPARC runs circles around the competition in its ability to handle large amounts of data. When trying to troubleshoot and determine the root cause of a problem, large amounts of data are needed to compare and analyze scenarios and asset performance. An example of this scenario could be the need for process data over a significant period of time. While our competition can literally lock up when large amounts of data are needed. dataPARC delivers the data in seconds.
dataPARC’s robust features such as the mobile alerts and sophisticated process graphics are also an example of powerful tools. Mobile alerts allow personnel to view what is going on in the process remotely and respond to alerts. Process graphics allow a visual representation of the plant’s operations and can be quite effective in determining root cause. Complex process graphics not only give the user the ability to see the current status of the plant, but they also are a great starting place to start building a troubleshooting trend to dive into past data.
A dataPARC customer in the SE USA attested below to both the speed and power of dataPARC below during a very important troubleshooting exercise
One day, the site temporarily lost access to the dataPARC Aggregate archive (PDE). It was restored in under two hours, but during that window, the system lost the dataPARC speed and reverted to the native Historian for data access on trends. The engineer needed to get work done quickly but had to work with greatly reduced trend speeds. One-month trends were accessed without the help of dataPARC and the data speeds were painfully slow. The reduced speed had a negative impact on the engineer’s productivity. The work would have been impossible if it involved accessing one years’ worth of data. The dataPARC Aggregate archive was quickly restored and the system regained full speed again. The incident was a reminder how slow the native historian is and the work inefficiencies that result when trends are slow and features like double-time window (back/forward) or look at a year, zoom into an area 2 or 3 times, sync other trends, etc. are involved.
Connected
Data silos are common in any industry, and the process industry is no exception. Different systems are used for different applications, and plants have modernized and expanded many times over the years. The end result is key data scattered in different systems. With dataPARC you can see all the data in one view, connecting many systems without worrying about double storing the data or rip and replace. It is all there in one place, and anyone can access it.
Process Historians are a great starting point for collecting and viewing the time series sensor data, but today’s engineers need to be able to see data from all of the systems in a plant. Lab Information Management Systems (LIMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) are also important sources of data that plant personnel need to see. dataPARC can connect to all of these systems in a single software solution.
For sites with legacy systems, this connection is a tremendous advantage. At the 2019 ARC Seminar, WR Grace presented their use case of dataPARC, which connected their Historian (Honeywell PHD), LIMS (GLIMS), Document system (eQuill) and SAP to achieve OT/IT convergence without replacing any systems.
Another example is a customer that already invested tremendous effort duplicating data between their Historian and LIMS. They implemented dataPARC for the advanced data analysis capabilities and three years later realized an unexpected benefit. While replacing their LIMS system, the customer found that keeping data in sync between the Historian and LIMS was no longer needed; dataPARC was already providing access to all this data. Not having to synchronize data between LIMS and the Historian significantly reduced the cost and complexity of their LIMS project. This is a great example of the simplicity that dataPARC can deliver going forward. No matter what the future brings, dataPARC’s flexibility will ensure long-term value.
Not only does the powerful dataPARC software suite keep you connected to your own data, we keep you connected to us. Resources such as our support team and the community forum keep you in touch with the resources that enable you to use dataPARC in the best way possible for your operation and needs.
Is dataPARC already in your facility and you have a question? Reach out to our highly knowledgeable support team.
Want to learn more about how a feature is used? Join our community forum and chat with other dataPARC customers to optimize utilization and learn more about of dataPARC unique features and robust functionality.
To find out more about how dataPARC can benefit your operation contact us.
