multiple system platforms to more readily work together.”
“I worked for a small software company (less than $10 million in annual sales) at the time, and a large pulp-and-paper manufacturer that I was visiting was very interested in using the X Window System to provide an upper level graphic view into their process with key performance indicators (KPI’s).” The company also wanted to be able to “drill down” into the process graphics and trends for more detailed information. “This customer did not use the word ‘dashboard,’ but the solution that they described is what we call dashboards today, the point being that manufacturers have been asking for ‘dashboard’ type capabilities for more than 20 years,” Woolfrey observes. “As an end to this story, the company that I worked for was able to meet some of our customers needs, but today, of course, we have much greater capabilities.”

People in all levels of an enterprise have readily available access to their KPI’s on a near real-time basis and can “drill down” to get more information when they need it. Woolfrey notes that there is some adoption of dashboard-like technologies, and some are still developing and extending their solutions. As for what has helped implementations to be successful, he says, “First is the obvious one. The layout and information in a particular dashboard must be relevant to the role of the user.”  A second success factor relates to the ability of an individual user be able to customize the dashboard as often as he or she wants to change it.

Qualify information

Some requirements are less obvious, but may actually be equally or more important to the ultimate return on investment. Woolfrey continues, “Most enterprises that exist today have not been organized with standardized, sustainable work processes that collect information and verify its completeness and accuracy in real-time or near real-time. To have dashboards that present truly useful information, those dashboards must qualify the information that they present. Users need to know if the information is complete and if information is accurate. Providing this level of quality and completeness in dashboard information frequently requires major reorganization of work processes to insure accepted and successful dashboard implementations.”

More advice about the topic comes from Randy Tatlock, senior applications specialist at enterprise manufacturing intelligence application supplier Aegis Analytical Corp., in Lafayette, Colo. “Having real-time data doesn’t do anything for you if you don’t have context. If you just apply to historical process, you’re destined to repeat history. I have experience as a user before joining Aegis Analytical plus talking with a lot of our customers since, and I see that users struggle with having these powerful systems to collect data in silos. And they are analyzed in silos. They need a broader context in order to take the data, make it actionable and broadcast it over the enterprise for broad use in decision making.”

Rob MacGreevy, Invensys Operations Management vice president, platform and applications, in Lake Forest, Calif., concludes, “Nearly every industry for over the last 10 years has been shoring up connectivity, visualization, Lean, Six Sigma and forcing productivity improvements.” He reports that customers have diverse applications such as real-time production planning and scheduling so that they can reschedule work orders on the fly to keep shipping on time if there are changes in orders, inventories or raw materials.

There is no doubt that technology is helping manufacturers become more efficient, productive and profitable in this highly competitive age.

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