To conduct a complex production process in an optimal way means fulfilling the concurring requirements of

• maximizing turnout,
• minimizing costs,
• achieving optimal product quality under consideration of the economical framework and
• complying with legal requirements in relation to the burden of proof (e.g. tracking & tracing according to EU regulations 0178/2002 and 1935/2004)

in consideration of the available resources to the largest possible extent. One of the most important preconditions for this is an information  management on MES level exceeding the borderlines between process areas and departments that provide the following core functions:

• Central consolidation and analysis of all relevant production from the different production areas
• Provision of a flexibly configurable reporting system
• Long term archiving of the relevant production data preserving the possibility to run the full range of analysis

Interdepartmental reporting

Plant iT integrate uses with Incuity EMI a very powerful reporting subsystem that is well-established in the market and is due to its architecture especially adapted to interdepartmental reporting. A very important feature is the capability to be interconnected with a very wide range of external systems. For this purpose a whole range of so called connectors are available, e.g.:

• MS SQL
• Oracle
• InSQL
• ODBC
• OLEDB
• OPC

From the technical point of view the full range of data exchange with external systems can be exploited. The data for the creation of reports can be taken from systems using a database but can also gathered by accessing single data points of subordinated control systems or data acquisition systems directly. Beside the information for all Plant iT system components (Process control system, batch system, data acquisition) also the data originating from other areas like

• Laboratory,
• Maintenance management,
• Warehouse management and internal logistics,
• Production scheduling as well as
• financial IT

can be integrated in a consistent and continuous reporting solution. Because also the connection to remote systems is supported, Plant iT  integrate can also be a central basis for a cross-site reporting solution. The creation and modification of reports is done by means of a powerful engineering environment that can be accessed via a dedicated system client. For the selection and visualization of reports there is a choice regarding the operator front end between a

• Web browser and
• Microsoft Excel.

Hence practically any PC with access to the intranet of the company can be used as a reporting client. Only in case of report access via Microsoft Excel being required, an installation on the client side becomes necessary. For both client types the full range of standard functionality provided by the front end application is available (e.g. printing, PDF export, Email transmission, forwarding as file, etc.). A parallel use of all kinds of Plant iT clients (e.g. those of the process control system) as a reporting client is possible.
In order to avoid inconsistency due to redundant data storage the reporting subsystem does not store any data itself. Instead of this it either takes direct access to the connected data sources or uses production data archived by Plant iT integrate.

Long term archive

Plant iT integrate provides a special long term archive that covers all process-related data gathered by the other Plant iT system components. It is specifically characterized by using a loss-free archiving function, i.e. compared with the original scope no detailed information are lost as a consequence of data compression. This is especially of crucial importance with regards to legal burden of proof, if it comes to the necessity of detailed analysis of production periods further in the past.

The long term storage of archiving of data in the long term archive strictly follows the structures that have been defined during the engineering for the other Plant iT system components. in oder to ensure consistent data archiving with minimized engineering workload, infomation like physical and procedural models, warehouse structures a.s.o. are automatically transferred in the long term archive.