20th of August 2019
The 2019.R3 release focuses on extending the capabilities of the TrendMiner platform to serve as your organisation’s Production Cockpit; complete with dashboard, analytics suite and agile communications facility. With this release, you will be able to create and share a complete and LIVE overview of your current process status and performance, enabling you and your team to immediately access production data, analyse the situation at hand and make decisions in an instance.
When you enhance this current process status overview with TrendMiner's advanced Early Warning capabilities, the production cockpit will provide operators the opportunity to act proactively and optimize operational performance even before issues arise. The production cockpit will also help you optimize the flow of information between shifts, from shift teams to engineers and between all related actors and production stakeholders, thereby boosting your organization's collaborative agility.
Overview of the new functionalities supporting the use of TrendMiner as your Production Cockpit:
DashHub
- LIVE mode: always have the latest up-to-date view on key process data (TrendHub-view tile) and contextual information (ContextHub-view tile) on your DashHub dashboards.
- Export dashboard: manually export the contextual content contained on your dashboard in HTML format or trigger an export based on a specific context event.
- Dashboard triggers: An option to generate and attach reports to context items automatically.
- Alert tiles: enrich your DashHub dashboards with a real-time status overview of your TrendHub process monitors.
TrendHub
- TrendHub-views with a “relative” timeframe: create views which directly display the most recent data of your process.
ContextHub
- LIVE mode: always have the latest up-to-date information available in your ContextHub views, both in table-view and Gantt-view mode.
- Comments & attachments for context items: collaborate with your colleagues by starting a conversation or sharing additional knowledge on the contextual information.
- Approvals for context items: put a stamp of approval on a specific context item.
- Context item history: keep track of who, what and when users make changes.
- Context item type permissions: configure write/delete permissions for specific context item types.
General
- Extended work sharing: collaborate with your colleagues by sharing any work-item that is stored in the work organizer. As well as TrendHub views, your ContextHub views, DashHub dashboards and fingerprints can now be shared with any other TrendMiner user.
Next to the Production Cockpit theme of this 2019.R3 release, we also introduce the following new key functionality:
- Cross-asset value based search: perform a value based search in one go across a fleet of similar assets, to accelerate your asset-wide analysis by immediately comparing behaviour from different areas of your plant.
- Webhooks for monitoring (LAB): set up webhook-integration to 3rd party systems of your choice and get notified of / react on the trigger of a configured monitor.
- Asset framework permissions: configure access rights on (parts of) the asset framework to align with your corporate structure
Application Enhancements
- Gantt chart improvements: order the rows in Gantt-view mode, choose the density of the chart and determine which key information should be visualized on the blocks.
- Improved user experience in influence factors when performing a global search over a selection of more than 20.000 candidates.
- Improved performance and resilience for the OSIsoft PI EF connection: improved stability when working with event frame attributes and support for backfill operations.
- Additional time zone support for monitoring emails: the time zone indicated in the monitoring emails can now be modified.
- Histograms now work for discrete tags as well.
- Option to start new session in new tab was introduced again in the top bar.
- Full screen mode is added to ContextHub and DashHub.
In-App on-boarding and engagement tools
- Starting in 2019.R3, we at TrendMiner will begin offering additional training resources directly within the TrendMiner application.
Bug fixes
- Improved Export of data when many filters are enabled.
- Fixed a bug where a lot of active filters could result in empty scatterplots, in multiscatter overview.
- The creation of fingerprints has been reworked for better performance while using a high number of layers and hidden tags.
- Fixed issue in influence factors where significant digits of small numbers were lost when saving the model as a calculated tag.
- Option 'Create item on visible layers' is visible again in the context item creation panel in TrendHub.
Known issues
- Scooter values may change when zooming in after adding the scooter. This is due to the fact that scooters currently interpolate the data points on the chart.
- The back button of the browser does not correctly restore the panel state.
- Tag grouping is not yet remembered as part of the view state, and may be lost when refreshing the view or loading a saved view.
- When calculated tags are deleted, they cannot be created with the same name again.
- TrendMiner monitors that create context items, might not have their context items show up on the Gantt chart in ContextHub when in live mode.
- When a global influence factor analysis is not yet completed and you enter a result bucket, a redirection to a higher level bucket is possible when new results come in.
- Web hooks are currently not received for monitors based on fingerprints.
Synopsis functionality
DashHub extended capabilities
Live mode
You can create a dashboard with tiles and enable a setting called “auto-refresh”. When turned on, the tiles on you dashboard will periodically refresh their content on a time interval of your choosing.
Dashboards have the auto-refresh option so that your TrendHub, ContextHub view tiles and monitor / alert tiles are refreshed periodically. This will enable you to have the latest information concerning your processes.
Use this to put up permanent dashboard screens in your workspace to follow up on all TrendMiner content during the day. In combination with the added full screen mode, this will give users dashboards that can be displayed in general areas for everyone to see, such as the control room or the shop floor.. |
Export dashboard
You can export the content of the context views contained on your dashboard into HTML format.
Using the dashboard export option you can create HTML reports of your process events very easily. This can be helpful when, for example, creating a shift handover report.
Dashboard triggers
As users are now able to generate exports from their context tiles on dashboards, TrendMiner has added an option to generate and attach those reports to context items automatically.
The context types of TrendMiner can be set up to have triggers related to their events. The first type of trigger that we introduce, is the dashboard trigger. Where you can define reports that need to be generated for specific events of your choosing, so they can be attached to context items that get created or updated with those events.
Alert tile
The Alert tile is a new type of tile in DashHub. It provides the ability to visualize the current state of a monitor in an easy and intuitive way.
When creating an alert tile, a monitor has to be selected from the available monitors in TrendHub. Then, a colored icon and an information text can be defined for each of the monitor states (triggered or not triggered).
Note: Only works for monitors on value based and operating area searches.
Note: Once the monitor is created, you will be able to use the alert tile in combination with the other types of tiles on a single dashboard to provide a clear overview of the current status of your assets
Note: As for the other tiles, TrendHub can be accessed directly from the tile when the monitor is "triggered". By clicking "View in TrendHub" in the tile options button, the period of time where the monitor was triggered will be directly opened in TrendHub. In this way, the troubleshooting process can start immediately.
TrendHub extended capabilities
TrendHub-views with a “relative” time frame
Beside saving views with a fixed time frame, now you will be able to create dynamic views of your most recent trends. Each time your relative view is loaded, the latest available data in your selected tags is directly visualized on your chart.
Note: Relative time frame views can only be saved with tags (layers and fingerprints are not allowed)
In the create view menu, the time frame type (current or relative time frame) can now be selected. By clicking on "Relative time frame", the duration of your dynamic view can be chosen from a predefined list of durations (e.g. last two hours, last eight hours, last week,...) or by inputting a custom time frame duration (e.g. 2h 30m).
Note: Use this to create a dynamic view of your data, for viewing the most recent data, or re-use on a periodic basis to create daily/weekly/monthly reports
Note: This type of view can also be used to create a TrendHub-view tile in DashHub to include an always up-to-date view on key process metrics.
ContextHub extended capabilities
Live mode for views in ContextHub
In the time selector of your ContextHub views, check the ‘Enable live mode’ box to see new context data come in. This applies to the grid and the Gantt view modes. |
Note: Use this to setup ContextHub in the control room and have an operational view of the events happening / early warnings coming in near real-time.
Context item extensions
Comments
Users can now post comments on their context items, enabling communication and addition of information over time. Administrators have full control over all the comments in a thread and can even edit and delete comments of others. But don’t worry, all changes in the comments are tracked in the history of the context item. |
AttachmentsCreate more process insights by adding pictures, reports or other useful documents to context items as attachments. Combined with the new approval and context item history functionality, you are ready to do approval flows like shift handovers or loss validation in your organization. |
Approvals
In a business process certain steps or documents need to be validated and approved by certain people. The new approval feature on context items lets you lock down context items by applying approvals on them. Any change to the context content (description, events, component, attachments or other fields) will result in the approvals being removed.
A shift leader approving on shift handover, for example, will see his approval disappear when someone changes the attached shift report.
In addition to letting people place approvals on items, users can also filter their views based on items having approvals or not.
Context item history
Available as an administrator option on context types. Context item history provides a content archive that may be referred to if descriptive elements of an item have been; unintendedly lost through deletion, changed, or you simply wish to refer to historical content.
Note: This is coming as a visible feature in the application in the near future, it is currently available through our APIs on the /context/history endpoint of TrendMiner.
Context item type permissions
Administrators now have the option to set user permissions for context types.
Different users create different content / context depending on department or role. Users can now be given write or delete rights on a specific type, protecting context item creation and updates.
When creating new types in ContextHub everyone gets write permissions to the type by default. The "Write" permission gives specific users the ability to create or update context items of the selected type. The other permission, “Delete”, provides the user the option to delete a type, while maintaining the right to create and update the context item type.
General
Extended work sharing
All items in the work organizer can be shared with individual users or 'everyone' in the organization to use in their own analysis. In the 2019.R3 release read access can be granted on TrendHub views, ContextHub views, dashboards and fingerprints. Edit permissions and folder sharing will be added in the next release.
Use this to build a library of interesting items to share with the company. Improve collaboration, create shared understanding and increase efficiency by avoiding duplicate work. |
Cross-asset value-based search
The cross asset value based search is the newest addition to the search algorithms that enables you to explore through similar assets and attributes that are predefined as part of a template in your asset framework.
The cross-asset value based search is available whenever an asset framework is set up and the asset-browser is enabled. By adding an attribute through the asset browser, TrendMiner will automatically detect the corresponding asset template and allow you to apply a value-based search on multiple, similar assets.
Search conditions are defined by filling in the familiar value-based form, that now includes an option based on the template attributes.
Use this new search to define value-based criteria which can easily be applied on multiple, similar assets. Accelerate your asset wide analysis by immediately comparing behaviour from different areas of your plant. |
Webhooks for monitoring (LAB)
Next to e-mail notifications and automatic context item creation, webhook triggers are now available as action on TrendMiner monitors. Users will have an option to supply a webhook URL, provided by a 3rd party workflow automation tool like Built.io, webMethods, Zapier, … For each monitor result TrendMiner will perform 2 HTTP calls: one when the monitor triggers and one when the complete search result closes.
Note: The webhook option is available as a lab feature, hence, it needs to be manually activated by the administrator in the feature management menu (TrendHub).
The response body of the HTTP call looks as follows:
{
"monitorId":1,
"resultEnd":"2019-02-02T02:02:02.000Z",
"resultId":2,
"resultScore":100,
"resultStart":"2019-01-01T01:01:01.000Z",
"resultUrl":"http://10.230.254.120/#/chart/monitoring/match/2",
"searchCreator":"UserX",
"searchDescription":"Description of my value based search" ,
"searchId":3,
"searchName": "My value based search",
"searchType":"valuebased"
,"webhookCallEvent":"start"
,"webhookCallTime":"2019-07-05T14:32:51.382Z"
}
The resultScore key will only be present for similarity search based monitors. The webhookCallEvent key will be equal to start (initial trigger of monitor) or end (end of search result).
The resultStart and resultEnd key indicate the start and end times of the detected monitor result, while the webhookCallTime key indicates the time the webhook call was sent. All timestamps are formatted as UTC time.
Use webhooks for monitoring to easily automate workflows based on TrendMiner monitoring result like sending out SMS messages, forwarding monitors to Slack or Microsoft Team channels, filling out spreadsheets, … |
Asset framework permissions
Administrators now have the option to set user permissions for access to the asset structure.
Permissions become very relevant when considering access to the asset structure and contextual data attached to it at the process level, the division level and ultimately the plant level. Access to the structure means that you will be able to read the context items associated to the assets, that access has been provided for.
Application Enhancements
Gantt: compact view
The display density of the Gantt chart refers to the level of bar compaction seen on the chart. There are three settings: compact, regular and spacious.
Gantt: sorting of rows
Sorting of rows refers to the order of the Gantt components and types displayed on the table. The little arrows on the Gantt chart enable you to move the context components and types into an order of preference.
Gantt: label field on bars
For ease of identification, the bars on the Gantt can be specifically labelled with identifiers that enable simple differentiation between context items. For example the batch number in a batch process, a lab measurement value or the name of a production step can be displayed.
Improved performance and resilience for the OSIsoft Pi EF connection
We improved the stability when working with event frame attributes in large setups.
Power users also like to do changes en masse by using the backfill functionality in PI, this new release of TrendMiner includes a new connector and improvements to its syncing mechanism to handle these large volumes of changes.
Note: The improvements needed for increased performance and resilience require an installation of OSIsoft PI AF 2017.R2 or higher. Starting this release the connection for PI EF will cease to work when your setup is not at least on 2017.R2 of PI AF.
Note: To enable these improvements install TrendMiner plant integrations 3.3.297 or higher.
In-App on-boarding and engagement tools
Starting in 2019.R3, we at TrendMiner will begin offering additional training resources directly within the TrendMiner application. This content is implemented via Gainsight PX, a leading provider of in-app onboarding and engagement tools. Individual users do not need to do anything to start taking advantage of these engagements. However, if there is an IT blacklisting policy in place, please whitelist the following URL: *.aptrinsic.com