The old joke goes, “How do you eat an elephant?” Answer? One bite at a time. That is the principal behind conquering the big data analysis challenge that is called ‘little data” and over the last year, we’ve told you a bit about it. In a recent Tech Briefs article, Emerson expert, Derek Thomas, spelled out the basis of the little data approach, which involves starting from the bottom up, employing machine-level data instead of from the top down at the enterprise level. Plant personnel can prioritize insights that address everyday operational issues and select the most relevant data from existing or even new sensing points. But that uncovers a new challenge: the data of interest is usually not actively being stored in the control system. Production data sources are generally part of the operational technology (OT) domain, which includes programmable logic controllers (PLCs), motion devices, and many types of sensors and instruments. But communicating, storing and processing massive amounts of data requires information technology (IT) capabilities.
There’s a key to bridging the OT and IT worlds, which Derek discusses in this article. Be sure to take a look.
How do you collect data from your operations in the control system?