Khris Kammer, Information Partner and Competency Manager, and Keith McPherson, Director, Market Development, Rockwell Automation Only 14 percent of executives say that their plant-floor data is integrated with enterprise systems. [1] This low number means the majority of industrial operations are not taking advantage of the wealth of valuable data from their automation systems. The best way to tap into the valuable data generated in plants is by associating it with other data in order to get a holistic view of plant operations. This is called contextualization. Tapping into contextualized data and sharing it across the enterprise allows manufacturers to address the age-old challenge of how to get more productivity out of existing assets. The Traditional State of Manufacturing Information Systems Traditionally, industrial operations have used a combination of centralized databases and local data storage for information systems. Special purpose and high speed data was, and is commonly kept locally, on-board, or near to the systems and equipment that need to access it frequently. Certain data necessary for contextualized decision-making is deemed worthy enough to be managed centrally, or at least “rolled up” to a central data warehouse. The thought behind this approach is that the information would be much easier to access and report on if it was all centralized. Inevitably, this approach requires moving the data from its originating point to the central location and system, whether immediately when collected, or some period of time later. The data in the centralized warehouse takes on a life of its own, and is decoupled from the originating system. Which is the appropriate “system of record”? Will the originating system and the central data warehouse be synchronized for the entire lifecycle of the data? This can be very difficult or time consuming.    Today, more and more industrial operations are […]