Rockwell Automation has announced the launch of FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI business intelligence software for manufacturing. VantagePoint EMI helps empower users at every level of an enterprise with information from web-based dashboards and reports on key performance indicators from multiple manufacturing and business data sources.
Manufacturers can better monitor and manage productivity in realtime, and make more insightful decisions about business priorities, such as product quality, equipment utilisation and global supply chain management to help reduce costs in today’s competitive business environment.
The software connects to multiple data sources – realtime, historical, relational and transactional – to create a single resource that can access, aggregate and correlate information via a web browser. The new application is based on a unified production model (UPM) that provides a unified view of seemingly disparate manufacturing data, and gives a context for relationships among equipment, product, materials and people. The UPM organises various manufacturing and enterprise data using commonly referenced business terms, like ‘equipment’, ‘batches’ and ‘manufacturing lots’. Access to this information improves decision making for the manufacturing environment – from inventory to maintenance, quality to production all the way through the enterprise, including the supply chain.
“Advances in IT have been a hidden gold mine for many manufacturers. Access to data is often not the issue,” says Keith McPherson, director, Rockwell Automation. “FactoryTalk VantagePoint EMI allows users to report data through a variety of tools, including Microsoft Excel, Trend and SAP Business Objects Dashboard Builder, and view it through Microsoft SharePoint, or other portals.
This is the second application from Rockwell Automation that leverages technology it acquired from Incuity Software, with the first edition, FactoryTalk VantagePoint, announced in 2008. Both editions combine data produced by the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture and other third-party production systems to provide a single access point for information that can help make better manufacturing decisions. With two versions now available, manufacturers can select the most appropriate feature-set for their needs.
The new application can be used to address a single or multiple manufacturing problems, on one manufacturing line or across a global enterprise. In addition, the system can be used to address specific manufacturing needs, like downtime reporting, status tracking, or multiple control-system reporting. The software can also be bundled with services to provide a complete solution to satisfy unique vertical market needs.
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