Why Trout Software is a good complement to a PI System ?
What is a PI System ?
PI System is a suite of product of OSIsoft , a company specializing in the development of information systems for industry.
Initially used mainly in factories, the initials P.I stand for plant information . Since then, the system has been more widely used in many industries (chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food…) but the name has stuck.
The PI System is comprising several key components, in order to turn vast amounts of data into actionable insights that drive operational intelligence, efficiency, and productivity in industrial environments. communication between the different PI Systems.
How do the different PI Systems communicate with each other ?
PI Interfaces and Connectors :
PI Interfaces and Connectors serve as the starting point, collecting data from various sources in the factory or industrial site, including sensors, programmable logic controllers, SCADA systems, process control systems, etc.
These interfaces and connectors then transmit the real-time data to the PI Server.
PI Server / PI Historian :
This server receives the data collected by the interfaces and connectors, and stores it as time-series data.
The PI Server / The "PI Historian" is optimized to handle massive volumes of this type of data, ensuring quick and efficient retrieval of data when necessary.
PI Asset Framework :
Once the data is stored in the PI Server, The PI Asset Framework adds context to this data.
It does this by modeling physical assets and industrial processes within the PI system, and then associating the collected data with these assets.
This allows raw data to be transformed into actionable and meaningful information.
PI Clients :
PI clients, which include tools like PI ProcessBook, PI Vision, and PI DataLink, allow users to access, visualize, and analyze the data stored in the PI Server.
They enable the creation of visualizations and dashboards, trend analysis, report generation, and other forms of interaction with the data.
PI Notifications :
This component monitors real-time data and sends alerts when it detects specific conditions, such as a sensor reaching a certain value or a trend suggesting potential equipment failure.
PI Integrators :
Finally, PI Integrators help to extract the data from the PI system and prepare it for use in other applications, like advanced analytics platforms, machine learning algorithms, or cloud-based systems.
Note that OsiSoft is now part of Aveva following its acquisition in 2021 for over $5 million .
What is the benefices of using PI System ?
Enhanced Operational Efficiency :
One of the most direct benefits of using the PI System is its ability to enhance operational efficiency. By collecting and storing time-series data from various devices and systems, the PI System allows you to analyze equipment performance and process efficiency in real-time.
For instance, a bottling plant could use the PI System to track the performance of its conveyor belts and bottling machines, identifying bottlenecks or inefficiencies that could be slowing down the production line. By addressing these issues, the plant could significantly increase its output.
Leverage Predictive Maintenance :
The PI System can be utilized to implement predictive maintenance strategies.
By continuously monitoring equipment condition and performance, it can detect subtle changes that might indicate an impending failure.
For example, an increase in the vibration levels of a pump could suggest bearing wear. This allows maintenance to be scheduled proactively, preventing costly unplanned downtime and extending equipment lifespan.
Facilitate Quality Control :
This system can play a crucial role in maintaining and improving product quality.
It allows real-time tracking of production parameters and process variables, ensuring they remain within specified ranges.
In a dairy processing plant, the PI System could continuously monitor temperatures, pressures, and flow rates during pasteurization to ensure product safety and quality.
Regulatory Compliance :
Many industries face stringent regulatory requirements for data reporting.
The PI System simplifies this process by automatically collecting and storing the necessary data.
In the pharmaceutical industry, for example, the PI System could maintain accurate records of temperature, humidity, and other critical parameters in drug manufacturing, ensuring compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations.
What are the drawbacks of the PI System ?
Complexity of the system :
The PI System is a sophisticated platform that collects and analyses large volumes of data from diverse sources.
As such, setting up and properly configuring the system can be complex, particularly in large and diverse operational environments.
For instance, ensuring the correct functioning of PI Interfaces and Connectors across various systems and devices requires a deep understanding of each system's specifics and the PI System itself.
Important Cost :
The PI System, while highly effective, can be expensive to implement.
The costs can include software licensing, hardware for the PI Server, and expenses related to training and ongoing system maintenance.
For small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), these costs may be a significant investment.
Data Overload :
While the ability to collect and analyze vast amounts of data is a significant advantage of the PI System, it can also lead to data overload.
This can happen if the volume of data being collected surpasses the organization's ability to effectively analyze and make use of it, potentially leading to missed insights.
Integration with Other Systems :
Although PI Integrators facilitate the export of PI data to other systems, there can still be challenges in achieving seamless integration with other business applications or analytic platforms.
This can be due to compatibility issues, data format differences, or the need for custom coding.
What make Trout Software Solutions a good complement to a PI System ?
👨💻Conduct multi-source data analysis
The platform Trout Software Operation Hub, based on the innovative Web Assembly programming language , revolutionizes data analysis capabilities.
This cutting-edge technology opens the door to reading data from diverse systems and environments with a minimal footprint, giving you the ability to monitor and control without the cumbersome task of data ingestion. This technology unlocks normalization on-read, and the ability to deploy controls on new systems in a matter of minutes.
By integrating Trout software into your IT and OT stack, you're equipped for multi-source data analysis that breaks traditional boundaries. Whether accessing PLCs, telemetry, logs or configurations, this synergy enables your company to correlate information that spans multiple data streams. This approach allows security and operation teams to correlate historical data present in a PI system, with many additional data sources, from PLC to configuration in excel, for their activities.
With this new technical approach, teams are able to reveal hidden correlations, detect anomalies and gain holistic insights that enable informed decision-making.
The Trout Software Operation Hub platform, based on the innovative [Web Assembly] programming language (https://webassembly.org/ ), revolutionizes enterprise data analysis capabilities.
This cutting-edge technology opens the door to reading data from a variety of systems and environments with a minimal footprint, enabling companies to monitor and control without the tedious task of data ingestion. This technology makes it possible to normalize data on reading, and to deploy controls on new systems in a matter of minutes.
By integrating [Trout software] (http://www.trout.software ) into the IT and OT stack, companies are equipped for multi-source data analysis that crosses traditional boundaries Whether accessing PLCs, telemetry, logs or configurations, this synergy enables the correlation of information spanning multiple data streams. This approach enables safety and operations teams to correlate the historical data present in a PI system, with many additional data sources, from PLC to configuration in Excel, for their activities.
Thanks to this new technical approach, teams are able to reveal hidden correlations, detect anomalies and obtain global information that enables them to make informed decisions.
📊 Secure and Monitor system within a no-code interface
Trout Software has established itself as an innovative solution for simple data correlation and analysis, using a read (as opposed to ingest) approach and providing a code-free user interface. Combined, these two attributes work in synergy, enabling users to quickly provide control over their systems and make them evolve.
In addition, Pi systems are remarkably powerful, capable of providing a precise view of the system's evolution over time. However, to provide contextual meaning, it is crucial to correlate them with the different states of a plant.
Trout Software's no-cod approach greatly simplifies the correlation process. With a simple double-click, users can correlate, analyze and normalize data on demand. What's more, query construction is seamless, while keyword searching is facilitated by our dedicated search bar. This seamless approach guarantees an optimized, effortless working experience.
This no-code interface has two key benefits:
- The ability to deploy and evolve controls on many systems, with additional context ;
- To ensure system compliance over time with 24/7 monitoring.
❗Scheduled detections and alerts
Trout Software allows users to replace tedious manual checks with scheduler checks for greater operational efficiency. As a user, select your playbook and frequency of the controls via a form, and push to production. All this in a few clicks via the Operational Hub Scheduler :
1️⃣ Select Your Playbook
2️⃣ Set Automation Parameters
3️⃣ Click “Schedule”
Each run is save in a standard exportable format, and can be used for compliance reporting.
👓 Ongoing detections and alerts
Trout Software also includes a proprietary streaming engine, allowing to continuously monitor systems. When a detection occurs, the alerting pipeline will be triggered and raise the given alert, with context through the channel set.
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