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Six essential use cases of Factry Historian: from real-time process monitoring to batch analysis
Jolan De Cock on , updated
With Factry Historian, we empower manufacturers to increase their efficiency and productivity by making process data accessible and actionable. In this post, we’ll explore six main use cases of Factry Historian by our clients.
1. Real-time production monitoring
Whether you want to monitor production or quickly react to anomalies, Factry Historian delivers process insights on-the-go.
Real-time production monitoring is vital for keeping processes on track and identifying inefficiencies before they grow into larger problems. Factry Historian collects and centralises data from any source, providing roles such as operators, managers, shift leaders, and engineers with a live, integrated overview of ongoing production activities. This real-time visibility allows for quick responses to anomalies such as equipment failures, or when KPIs are not met.
It keeps you one step ahead, every time.
For example, companies such as food producer Agristo use Factry Historian to gain deep insights into their processes, from monitoring machine statuses to tracking output. With real-time and frictionless access to process data, they’ve effectively reduced unplanned downtime and addressed process bottlenecks, resulting in significant improvements in production efficiency, quality, and overall output — helping them stay competitive in a demanding industry.
2. Batch analysis
When it comes to analysing production events or ensuring batch quality, Factry Historian makes the invisible, visible.
Batch processes are the backbone of many industries, such as the food, fermentation, or chemical industries, where precise oversight into each batch is essential for maintaining quality and consistency. Through the built-in Event Module, Factry Historian provides our clients with a comprehensive solution that makes batch analysis both in-depth and straightforward, with no technical knowledge required to use it.
Whether batches, downtime, or shifts, and more, Factry Historian’s event detection module automatically detects these types of events and aligns them with time-series data to provide deeper insights into production performance. By visualising the relationships between different production variables and batch results, you can efficiently troubleshoot problems, optimise processes, and prevent issues from happening again.
Take Lesaffre, a global leader in yeast production.
By automatically aggregating batch data, operators and quality managers can easily monitor key metrics like temperature, pressure, and cycle times. This automation replaced their previous manual data transformation workflow, significantly reducing complexity. With streamlined access to real-time data, they can now quickly identify variations that impact quality and make timely adjustments to maintain consistency. This approach helps reduce waste and improve yields, enhancing overall efficiency in a scalable manner.
3. Utilities monitoring
From tracking electricity and water consumption to managing steam production, Factry Historian helps you optimise every resource.
Utility costs, such as electricity, gas, and water, account for a significant portion of operational expenses in a production plant. Factry Historian enables you to track your utilities consumption, offering real-time insights into usage patterns. By monitoring these metrics, your organisation can optimise energy efficiency, identify any irregularities, and take corrective measures quickly.
Utilities monitoring not only contributes to cost savings but also aids in achieving your organisation’s sustainability goals by reducing unnecessary energy consumption. For example, a manufacturing plant using Factry Historian can monitor electricity consumption across production lines to identify inefficiencies, helping reduce energy waste and minimise carbon emissions.
Steam functions
Since our latest v7.1 update, which includes steam functions, it is now possible to gain even deeper insights into steam usage and optimise energy consumption further. Read more about our latest update.
4. Cross-site data integration
Unify your production sites’ process data for deeper insights, better collaboration and consistent performance across your organisation.
For enterprises operating across multiple production sites, consolidating data into a single platform can significantly enhance efficiency and collaboration.
This is where Factry Historian truly shines.
Our software is built to integrate data from various locations, creating a unified platform that allows companies to compare performance metrics across sites. This cross-site data integration enables your organisation to identify best practices, standardise operations, and drive continuous improvement.
AGC Glass Europe, for example, adopted Factry Historian as their enterprise standard for real-time data collection and dashboarding across multiple sites. This implementation has empowered their Automotive department to improve yield, uptime, and traceability by providing real-time process insights and easy-to-build dashboards.
With Factry Historian’s open historian solution, AGC Glass Europe has also benefited from cost-effective scalability, making it easy to extend data collection to new lines and sites without prohibitive costs. The unified data platform allows them to share best practices and accelerate problem-solving, fostering a culture of continuous improvement across the organisation.
5. Preventive maintenance
Keep your production assets in peak condition by anticipating and acting before problems arise.
As you learned already, Factry Historian is built to empower various departments — from operations to management — with the data they need to make informed decisions. By providing centralised data visualisation and in-depth analytics, Factry Historian enables organisations to move from reactive problem-solving to proactive, data-driven decision-making.
This can be especially useful for asset monitoring.
For example, Ekopak, a Belgian water supplier, uses Factry Historian to monitor their remote water treatment installations in real-time, ensuring they maintain the highest level of operational efficiency to support their Water-as-a-Service business model. This not only supports better decision-making within operations but also enhances service reliability and customer satisfaction.
6. Integration with BI and AI tools
Integrate Factry Historian data with BI, AI or other tools to get advanced insights, and make smarter operational and business decisions.
For advanced applications like AI, having a solid data layer is essential. Factry Historian provides precisely that.
Accurate, real-time data is needed for maximising the potential of Business Intelligence and AI tools. Factry Historian integrates seamlessly with multiple systems, supplying them with reliable, timely data to support advanced analytics and generate actionable insights.
Factry Historian also supports integration with Unified Namespace architectures, ensuring that all process data is accessible for other systems in real-time. Similarly, integrating with AI systems allows your organisation to build predictive models for maintenance, quality control, and other critical processes.
Why you should see Factry Historian in action
Turn raw production data into insights that drive efficiency and higher profits:
A platform beyond data collection
Factry Historian offers far more than just data collection. It delivers a robust set of features that transform raw data into powerful, real-time insights, helping you optimise resources, streamline operations, and foster collaboration across sites.
Future-proof data management
Modern data management demands systems that are open, scalable, and seamlessly integrate with emerging technologies. Factry Historian embodies these principles by offering an open architecture that ensures interoperability.
Flexible and cost-effectively scalable
New data points and systems can be integrated seamlessly. Factry Historian’s scalable design allows for efficient expansion across multiple sites without facing excessive costs, making it adaptable to growing operational needs.
Ready to transform your operations?
See how Factry Historian enables real-time insights, optimised resources, and drives continuous improvement.
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