In today’s data-driven world, industrial organisations rely heavily on data and analytics to optimise their operations, improve efficiency, and make informed decisions. Aveva PI System is a widely used platform that helps companies collect, store, and analyse data from various industrial processes.
While implementing the Aveva PI System is a significant step towards better data management, it’s equally important to audit the system periodically. Auditing your Aveva PI System can uncover potential issues, enhance data quality, and ensure the system continues delivering value.
The power of PI
The AVEVA PI System (formerly OSI Pi, OSIsoft PI) has been a central tool in operations data for many years. Giving organisations the ability to collect, manage and analyse huge amounts of data, the PI System is often a critical component of business operations. This makes it imperative that your PI System is performing at the highest standard.
Undertaking an audit on your PI System is a key investment to support and improve the performance and reliability of your system. An audit can ensure your configuration is continuing to meet best practice, reduce management costs, maintain security of operations data and help you determine whether your PI infrastructure is able to support future digitisation projects.
Potential challenges an AVEVA PI System audit can support
An Aveva PI System audit can help organisations overcome several potential challenges they might face in managing their industrial data and processes. Some of these challenges include:
Data Quality Issues:
Over time, data collected in the Aveva PI System may need to be more accurate and complete. This could be due to changes in equipment, sensor drift, or data entry errors. An audit can help identify and rectify these data quality issues, ensuring decision-makers work with accurate and reliable data. .
Security Vulnerabilities:
Data security is a significant concern in industrial settings, where sensitive information must be protected from unauthorised access and cyber threats. An audit can help uncover potential security vulnerabilities in the Aveva PI System, ensuring that data is safeguarded and compliance with industry regulations is maintained.
Performance Bottlenecks:
Performance issues can arise as the volume of data collected and stored in the Aveva PI System grows. These issues may include slow data retrieval, delays in data processing, and inefficient resource utilisation. An audit can help pinpoint performance bottlenecks and recommend optimisations to maintain system responsiveness and efficiency.
Compliance Challenges:
Many industries have strict regulations and requirements for data collection, storage, and reporting. An Aveva PI System audit can ensure that the system is aligned with these regulations, preventing potential legal issues and penalties associated with non-compliance.
Data Integration Problems:
in a complex industrial environment, data often needs to be integrated with various other systems and software applications. An audit can help identify integration challenges, ensuring data flows smoothly between different platforms and addressing interoperability issues.
Outdated Configurations:
System configurations may become outdated over time, leading to inefficiencies or vulnerabilities. An audit can identify areas where configurations must be updated, helping the system align with current best practices and industry standards.
Operational Inefficiencies:
An audit can uncover operational inefficiencies related to data collection, storage, and analysis. It can provide recommendations for streamlining processes, reducing unnecessary data redundancy, and improving organisational decision-making processes.
Data Retention and Archiving:
Managing data retention and archiving policies is essential in preserving valuable data while unnecessary data is appropriately managed. An audit can assess the data retention and archiving practices within the Aveva PI System and guide on establishing a more effective data lifecycle management strategy.
User Access Control:
Unauthorised access to sensitive data can lead to security breaches. An audit can assess user access controls to ensure that only authorised personnel have access to specific data, preventing potential data breaches or misuse.
System Scalability:
As the organisation grows or data demands increase, the Aveva PI System must be able to scale to meet these evolving requirements. An audit can help assess the system’s scalability and provide recommendations to ensure it can handle the growing data load effectively.
So with all those challenges, what are our top 3 reasons to audit your AVEVA PI system?
An Aveva PI System audit can help organisations overcome several potential challenges they might face in managing their industrial data and processes. Some of these challenges include:
Data Accuracy and Quality
Data is the lifeblood of any industrial organisation, and the Aveva PI System plays a crucial role in collecting and storing this data. However, over time, data quality can deteriorate due to various factors, such as changes in equipment, software updates, or human error. An audit of your Aveva PI System is essential to ensure data accuracy and quality.
During the audit, data points can be examined for consistency and correctness. Only accurate and consistent data can lead to accurate analysis and decision-making, potentially causing operational disruptions and financial losses.
By auditing your Aveva PI System, you can identify and rectify data quality issues. This includes cleaning up noisy or missing data, establishing data validation rules, and ensuring the data aligns with the operational reality—improved data quality results in more reliable analytics, leading to better decision-making and greater operational efficiency.
Security and Compliance
Industrial organisations are increasingly concerned about the security of their operational data. Unauthorised access to sensitive information, data breaches, and cyber-attacks pose a significant risk. Auditing your Aveva PI System is essential in maintaining data security and ensuring compliance with industry regulations and internal policies.
By conducting a security audit, you can identify potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your system. This includes assessing user access controls, monitoring data transmission and storage, and evaluating system configurations. The audit can help in the early detection of security threats and prevent data breaches. Moreover, it ensures that your Aveva PI System adheres to industry-specific regulations and internal compliance requirements.
System Performance Optimisation
The performance of your Aveva PI System is critical to its effectiveness in supporting your industrial operations. An underperforming system can lead to delays in data processing, slow response times, and inefficient resource utilisation. Periodic audits can help in identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks and optimisation opportunities.
System components, such as servers, databases, and network configurations, are evaluated during a performance audit. Performance metrics are analysed to ensure the system can handle the increasing volume of data generated by industrial processes. The audit can also identify inefficient data collection or storage practices and recommend improvements.
By optimising the performance of your Aveva PI System, you can ensure that it continues to meet the evolving needs of your organisation and handle the growing data demands of modern industry.
Auditing your Aveva PI System is not just good practice; it is a critical step in ensuring that your industrial organisation can continue leveraging data for informed decision-making and operational excellence. Data accuracy and quality, security and compliance, and system performance optimisation are three compelling reasons to prioritise auditing your Aveva PI System.
With a well-audited system, you can have confidence in your data, protect it from security threats, and maintain optimal system performance, ultimately enabling your organisation to thrive in today’s data-driven world.
About Mipac’s PI System audit
Mipac’s PI System audit entails undertaking a comprehensive assessment of your current PI System to ensure optimum performance. Our audit will also help you determine whether your PI infrastructure is able to support future digitisation projects, like Power BI or other advanced analytic tools.
The objective of auditing an existing PI System is to support and improve the performance and reliability of the system. The audit consists of reviewing the installation, configuration and use of the PI System and its components.
We engage your PI System users, understand usage habits, and seek to understand where the perceived problems and opportunities are. We make best practice recommendations for how you can get more out of your PI System infrastructure by empowering your employees.
Want to get started?
Investing in a Mipac PI System audit can make a huge difference to your confidence in the operational insights you make critical decisions off. Our PI System accredited engineers use their deep expertise and industry experience to ensure you’re really getting value out of your data, empowering your employees to optimise use of the system in future.
Interested to know more about Mipac’s offering? Get in touch with us.
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