GE Fanuc Automation offers free access to its Proficy Historian plant-wide data collection software. The solution provides access to all production and process data – building a foundation for users to use to transform their operations with accurate, timely production information.

"Manufacturers are discovering the power contained in the data that exist on their plant floors," said Jack Wilkins, Senior Product Manager for GE Fanuc. "They hold the key to transforming production - driving greater throughput and higher quality and meeting compliance requirements. Historian applied across all manufacturing environments – from process to hybrid to discrete – supplies users with a consistent data backbone across their entire enterprise."

Whether the company is a single municipal facility or a global manufacturer, Proficy Historian can make them more profitable and productive. These data can be used to drive many plant initiatives like:

Overall Equipment Effectiveness – to maximize return on assets

Product Quality – to reduce costs of manufacturing while maintaining customer satisfaction

Inventory visibility – to lower inventory levels and increase turns

Genealogy / Traceability – to contain quality issues limit warranty / recall exposure

Real-Time reporting – to get the right information to the right people

"All of these initiatives will improve manufacturing operations," Wilkins continued. "Before you can start putting context around plant floor data to achieve these goals, you have to collect them. Proficy Historian is the foundation for transforming business and tapping into the valuable flow of information that is passing through production equipment every day."

Proficy Historian ensures the reliable collection of your mission-critical data. It is easy to configure and administer and features unparalleled performance, offering: sub-second data collection; ultra-efficient data compression; scalable server configurations; and best-in-class storage and retrieval performance with precise time-stamp resolution. The software also accommodates a wide range of data collectors to ensure connectivity to as many plant floor data sources as possible.

Real value can be achieved by layering Historian with other plant systems, including HMI/SCADA applications. Data can be exchanged in both directions with GE Fanuc's Proficy HMI/SCADA – iFIX and CIMPLICITY applications. And, trending and queries assist users in managing their most critical KPIs to drive performance improvements.

The value of making historian capabilities broadly available is substantial. According to an AMR Research Alert article entitled "Brush Up on Data Historians: They're About To Go Mainstream," by Alison Smith and Colin Masson, "While relational databases have their place, the humble historian is the workhorse (or should be) of virtually any manufacturing environment in which supervisory control, advanced process control and simulation, statistical process control, data reconciliation, expert systems, neural networks, batch and recipe management, and other manufacturing execution functions require real-time and high-fidelity historical data for decision support."