Summary:
Data logging is the automated process of collecting, storing, and analyzing data from various sources, including industrial automation systems. It helps businesses monitor performance, manage supply chains, and ensure safety and compliance. Secure and efficient data logging supports better decision-making. Try the OAS Platform for a robust data logging solution.
Data that can be efficiently collected, organized, quantified, analyzed, and interpreted drives businesses, industries, and the entire global economy. Of course, collecting and organizing this data is not always a simple or automatic process.
Without reliable and efficient tools for bringing together and organizing data from diverse sources, businesses are often left in the dark. Simply having data isn’t enough. Companies need to consistently log data as a key first step to building databases, conducting analysis, and turning raw data into organized and useful information.
The ability to collect, transmit, and transform data is crucial to deriving insights from it, empowering businesses to make more informed and effective operational and strategic decisions. That’s true for all types of collected data, from real-time monitoring to in-depth investigation of historic data sets.
So, what is the role of data logging in the broader process of data management and use? What makes data logging so valuable for companies across the modern economy and, especially in terms of industrial automation? We’ll take a closer look in our beginner’s guide to data logging.
The Basics of Data Logging: What You Need to Know
In the modern business world, data generation is a given. From manufacturing to transportation, from telecommunications to healthcare, devices and processes are digitally connected (or entirely digital) and generate a wide variety of data.
In general, data logging is the process of securely gathering, storing, and making this data available for further use. In the big picture, it means taking data from its source and bringing it to a database engine or similar digital storage and management tool.
A key point to keep in mind is that there is a time aspect, and frequently a location aspect as well, to this process. Data logging generally involves creating a chronological record of events. Timestamps are, therefore, a crucial part of data logging.
There are four major steps involved in data logging, as cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike explains. Sensors record relevant data, then microprocessors complete basic tasks related to that data. The data is then stored, transmitted to a database engine or other storage tool, and then analyzed and/or visualized.
In terms of industrial automation, data logging involves bringing data from sources like a programmable logic controller (PLC) or other IIoT-enabled sensor attached to equipment or machinery and delivering it to a database or other storage tool for further review and analysis.
Along with other crucial components of a data acquisition system, businesses need the right tools to efficiently and consistently move data and log that data. While manual data logging is always an option in theory, it’s rarely efficient or even plausible in the modern business world outside of niche applications.
Automated data logging is crucial for the reliable delivery of accurate data. It reduces the burden on frontline staff and enables analysts to more easily use the data for productive purposes, such as generating effective data visualizations, while being assured of its accuracy and quality.
Why Businesses Use Data Logging
When structured and executed correctly, data logging is a key step in providing actionable insights. In a very broad sense, logged data allows businesses to determine if things are going as planned or if corrections and changes are needed. In other words, data logging plays a crucial role in both verification and corrective action.
More specifically, data logging plays enables many key processes, with examples including but not limited to:
Monitoring and Recording Performance and Efficiency
Insight into how individual pieces of equipment, larger workflows, and many other aspects of operations perform can be incredibly valuable.
On the micro level, data logging can provide a clear record of how a single piece of machinery or other electronic device performs its duties over time. An accurate data log is the first step to understanding if equipment is faltering or maintenance is needed. The scope can easily extend to all machinery of a specific type or the operations of a facility as a whole.
Diagnostic data captured through data logs can include voltage, speed, vibration, and many other measurables. Automating alarm logging notifications can provide clear real-time warnings that equipment is operating outside of safe parameters or in a way that would otherwise cause damage or degrade the quality of its outputs.
Managing Supply Chains
Data logging can play a critical role in monitoring the movement of products, helping businesses understand exactly where products are in the supply chain at any given time. It’s far easier to manage internal operations and provide updates to clients with clear and current data.
Data logging extends beyond product location, as sensors can capture information about temperature, humidity, and other environmental conditions. That provides useful, time-sensitive information that can prevent damage and spoilage, whether products are moving through the supply chain or stored in a warehouse.
Safety, Security, and Compliance
When properly structured and executed as part of a larger approach to data collection and management, data logging captures key information related to compliance along with safety and security.
That’s true for voluntary, internal safety and security programs, as well as those required by various laws and regulations.
Timestamped records make it easier to find suspicious or abnormal activity that could indicate a cybersecurity breach, for example. And data related to equipment performance and supply chain movements help businesses align with workplace safety requirements and their own standards for product quality and safety.
Secure, Consistent, and Robust Data Logging Solutions
Our OAS Platform offers a robust and flexible framework for integrating enterprise systems data, aligning with the diverse needs of businesses across the global economy. It’s a customizable and automated tool for not only data logging but also an accessible yet secure data ecosystem.
Download a trial of the OAS Platform to experience a streamlined approach to data logging and so much more.