Where OEE is a serious consideration I have found customers opt for one of two choices- either copy WinCC alarms/events to a separate database server for analysis; or pull data out of WinCC using OPC intoa third-party product such as PI or IP21.

I've found that WinCC can handle OEE analysis quite nicely for small, simple solutions assuming all the correct data points are being collected from the process. Just use the alarm system to record all the events and then use the hitlist, DataMonitor or Connectivity Pack to generate reports. More sophisticated requirements involve scripting which as you say is not what customers want (plus you have the battle of trying to explain the complexity and worthof your code ! )

I believe that the next version of WinCC will have more available regarding OEE and downtime reporting. No details yet but as we don't have a good, solid, working solution yet maybe these new developments will fill the gap.

Sorry as I seem to have gone off on a tangent to your original question !

Hi Reuben,


May I will flee a little of the subject, but...

==>I guessWinCC is primarily for operator control of a plant or a process, and extra reporting must be done using add-on software.
I agree with you, the principal function of WinCC is to providesafe information about process, and in very case, this don't happen. It's necessary to separate theinformation in layers, where the need of operation, is not the same of OEE.

We are adopting in my company (mainly projects for energy area), the follow philosophy:
WinCC or other SCADA to communication andto visualize the process, where the historical information be storage in the maximum of 7 days.
Longer data are stored in a central server (MS-SQL, ORACLE, MYSQL), where we provide the access to these informations in a portal building with J2EE. In the portal can be made complex reports and analyze, inclusive crossed the information with other data sources.

Well, the problem happen if the application is small. A portal with J2EE is impracticable, in this case, we have used the WinCC + Connectivity Pack and in a late case Crystal Reports. And mainly we tried optimezed to the maximum the data of SCADA.
The problembe in the companies andproviders that don't give value to information of process.

I tried to write something about this, in a simpler way and with the focus on people that don't give value to this information. See, http://marcioroberto.wordpress.com/2006/11/17/quanto-vale-a-sua-informacao/, sorry but these text are in Portuguese.