Wood Products Fabrication
DataHub Use Case
A manufacturer of wood fencing products in North America was using OPC as a data communications protocol to link their MES (Manufacturing Execution System) to their production equipment. Wanting to get the most out of their system, the engineering team looked to see if there was any way to run calculations on the live data flowing from the OPC server to their MES.
A friend told them about DataHub software, and its built-in scripting ability. They found it easy to configure a separate OPC connection from the OPC server to their MES, with a DataHub instance inserted into the data path. By running several DataHub scripts, they can crunch numbers on the fly, and feed the results into the MES in real time. The result is that the MES can work with raw data and live analytics on that data, simultaneously.
This initial success with the DataHub program has sparked more ideas. They wrote another script to control the run and idle settings on plant equipment from the MES. Using the Bridging feature, they have been able to replicate and rename whole sets of data tags. And they also use the Email/SMS feature to send email messages to plant operators with dynamic content system-related events, which gives the operators greater mobility and reduces their work load.
