Value of System of System approach to drive real-time, intelligent operations

Posted: July 18, 2019

Historically, businesses have used data warehousing to reveal patterns, improve procurement and delivery, and pinpoint areas for improvement. Such methods are very reactive in nature and the answers come slowly, only after pouring over reams of historical data.

Operational decision making requires real-time information that cuts across silos to answer questions like , "Do we have enough physical operations capacity to satisfy customer demand? If not, how can we get more out of what we have?"

Why do intelligent operations matter?

Unlocking knowledge of how plant operations impact the financial performance is challenging. Silos of information stored in various disparate data systems can make it virtually impossible to present a common view and align individual and group objectives with the business strategy.

Summary reports that take days and weeks to access are inadequate and unfortunately rarely make it to the personnel who actually drive the business. It's becoming clear that to thrive, industrial businesses and municipal operations need to implement digital technologies that unify operational data and provide holistic and real-time access to the information needed to drive efficiency and agility.

Key imperatives in the implementation of a real-time operations solution:

• Encourage a performance-based culture based on collaboration across sites, plants or facilities
• Embed continuous learning and decision-making models across finance, supply chain, maintenance and operations
• Prebuild KPI and role-based dashboards to better align real-time operations with business objectives
• Maximize user experiences across any device with varying presentation needs through responsive visualization
• Support friction-less expansions and deployment through a sustainable future proof platform
• Automate business process workflows to allow seamless communication between people, processes and systems
• Rapid engineering with proven application and solution templates

Close the data loop through context

Most ERP systems provide some amount of relevant data; however, most ERP systems don't provide visibility into the information relative to specific business objectives.

An enterprise uses many systems for different activities. No one system contains all the information you need. Combining information in meaningful ways from various IT and OT sources can result in lower production costs and optimized performance.

As an example, in many companies, the finance department religiously tracks cost variances down to the penny. While variances show that something went wrong, it's simply historical information—useless in helping operations personnel resolve a real problem in real-time.

Now that you know this, what are you going to do with it? 

"Answers" come into focus when you examine data from multiple sources side-by-side in the same context.

The path to intelligent operations begins with Enterprise Visibility

People are the source of sustainable creativity and innovation in business, and information systems must support them. Rapid access to real-time information, presented visually and intuitively, empowers people to contribute to the profitability of the business.

Research suggests that for every trained operator, there are nine others who cannot access the information generated by such systems. These are people who could use such information to seriously affect the bottom line. Secondly, it is impractical to train all possible users on all systems; businesses cannot afford it. What's needed is a common and consistent user interface that lets users access information from any system, document, database or data warehouse in the enterprise.

Key considerations for visualization requirement:

• Relevant external content is easy to find
• Information is aggregated in meaningful ways
• Displays and reports are live and continually updating with real-time data to provide instant Access to supporting information
• Graphics highlight data irregularities
• Graphics need to be engineered once, regardless of device or browser
• Complexity of back-end systems and connections are hidden from the users
• Users can choose the content or app for their own dashboard

AVEVA's System of Systems Approach

The ability to 'visualize your business' informs critical decisions and adjustments that directly impact your bottom line. The real value lies in the improved integration and collaboration across functional departments, enabling the sharing of information and coordination of daily activities and processes.

AVEVA's recently launched, Unified Operations Center is geared towards operational analysis and decision-making. Unified Operations Center changes the way real-time performance is managed and how people view success.

Unified Operations Center is the only product that can optimize the entire asset and operations life cycle by contextualizing engineering design with real-time process; augmenting physical equipment and assets with virtual reality.

to discover how AVEVA's Unified Operations Center goes beyond HMI and SCADA to provide the foundation for real-time performance management.