There was a record attendance at the June Durban SAIMC technology evening to hear Malcolm Heathfield of Adroit teach us how to take the strain out of information gathering and transform real-time data into an OLAP data cube. Malcolm runs the Scada Intelligence Products business unit at Adroit, driving the new product range including Adroit Scada Intelligence and Alarm Analysis, making him well qualified to tell us about this process. As he explained, most of us probably have an information overload because we get fed ‘data’ and not ‘information’.
Malcolm Heathfield being thanked by branch chairman John Owen-Ellis after the presentation
Data analysis is the process of gathering, modelling and transforming data with the goal of highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions and supporting decision-making. Raw scada data is flat or unstructured so it cannot be grouped easily to give itself meaning in contexts such as shifts, specific process areas or items of equipment.
The solution is a multidimensional data warehouse that lends itself to online analytical processing (OLAP), enabling users to extract and view data from different points of view both easily and selectively.
Before supper was served, DUT instrumentation lecturer, Carl Reinecke, shared information about the proposed changes to the technology university’s engineering curriculum. Feedback from industry will be requested – watch the press for details.
Carl Reinecke addresses the audience
Forthcoming attractions
The July Durban SAIMC technology evening will see Evan Dent present a proposal for a monitoring and targeting strategy that will assist utilities identify the energy saving potential in industrial processes. He will take us through the process from the basics of energy policy and examples of potential savings, to the three key elements of an automatic Monitoring and Targeting solution (aM+T). He will investigate the concept of Energy Accountable Centres (EACs) and discuss these using examples of typical utility systems by considering the monitoring solutions as a cycle of energy-saving strategies. Included will be the methodology of targeting, benchmarking, reporting and action required to realise sustainable savings. He will back this up with an overall conclusion based on industry experience both locally and internationally.
(Please note the date change from the usual first Wednesday format!)
Wednesday 20 July: 17h30 for 18h15.
Venue: Westville Country Club.
1 Link Road, Westville.
Please contact Jane van der Spuy with any queries [email protected] or +27 (0)31 764 0593.
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