5 benefits of live data in your process plant

Share Post:

For most metallurgists and plant operations managers, Excel is something you need to use daily to do your job. It’s incredibly powerful for simple, static data tasks but can create numerous problems when used for complex reporting and analysis. That’s why many plant operations teams are moving towards software systems that give them live data. You can now get real-time insights that help you make better decisions, be more efficient, and improve plant throughput. 

It’s not just about collecting live data—the most important thing is how you visualise and use it. Clear, intuitive presentation of live data makes it easy to identify deviations and trends so you can address issues before they escalate.

You can now bring together multiple data streams—such as SCADA, lab results, and Computerised Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) information—to have a comprehensive view of your operation and spot things that static tools often miss.

There are five important ways where live data can improve your plant’s performance:

  • Real-time monitoring for immediate visibility of plant performance
  • Better decision-making when things go wrong
  • One source of truth—the right data all accessible in one place
  • Productivity wins by reducing downtime and enabling predictive maintenance
  • Less human errors and data entry mistakes

1. Real-time monitoring

Live data provides immediate visibility into your plant’s performance, enabling proactive decision-making.

Modern systems can integrate thousands of I/O points, but raw data alone isn’t enough. Effective live data visualisation—using dashboards, trend graphs, and alerts—lets you quickly identify and respond to issues. For example, a visual display showing key process parameters (e.g., tonnes processed, machinery performance) with colour-coded trends helps teams understand plant health in seconds.

As Andrew Hislop, Senior Controls Systems Engineer at Mipac explains, “We now have live data feeds from sensors across the process plant, giving us immediate visibility into equipment health and operational status.”

Without live monitoring, problems can persist unnoticed for days or weeks, only surfacing in monthly reports or in production meetings a few days later. Worse yet, incidents can occur because of ignored or misunderstood alarms. As Andrew highlights, “Real-time alerts and dashboards mean you can spot anomalies instantly, eliminating costly downtime.” Mipac’s Alarm Manager provides this capability.

With real-time data insights, you’re less dependent on the individual, subjective experience of experienced team members to spot deviations and suggest solutions. That means you’ll have more consistent decision-making across the whole plant operations team.

2. Better decision-making

Live data empowers teams to prioritise their time and respond faster to critical issues.

How?

For starters, toolbox meetings become more actionable. Instead of relying on incomplete reports or gut instincts, teams can access real-time performance metrics. For example, a dashboard that shows downtime events and their causes allows you to immediately allocate resources—fitters can be reassigned from routine maintenance to high-priority breakdowns. 

Andrew points out, “If you’ve taken live data and figured out your key performance points, compressing it into a visual dashboard means you can walk into a daily toolbox meeting and clearly see what’s wrong, so you can easily coordinate critical works for the day.” Mipac’s Golden State, an MPA software suite app, is ideal for that.

In the long term, historical live data helps identify trends and bottlenecks. For instance, proper data analysis enabled one plant we worked with to identify that production was consistently lower in summer due to cooling tower limitations. This insight led to targeted CapEx investments, which resolved the root issue and avoided unnecessary upgrades to other equipment.

“That visualisation of the real-time data makes it clear where efforts need to be focused to make better decisions,” says Andrew. Over time, live data also enables teams to make decisions backed by a complete picture of the operation. “In a process plant, there are 5,000 problems every day. It’s very important to prioritise your workforce, and live data visualisation is really good for identifying where resources need to be allocated.”

Managing Variability with Golden State

3. One source of truth

While there may never be a perfect ‘single source of truth,’ live data provides clarity that prevents both misinformation and missteps.

Consider an incident where a tank overflows. The issue might only be noticed during a plant walk-through, and identifying the root cause could take days of observation and manual troubleshooting. With live data and the right instrumentation, the overflow could actually be traced back to a specific tank reaching 100% capacity, enabling faster resolution.

Live systems also eliminate guesswork. Teams can work from shared, reliable information rather than conflicting anecdotes or theories. “When somebody leaves a company, that type of knowledge doesn’t get retained or communicated. Standardisation helps reduce individual subjectivity and captures knowledge,” says Andrew.

“You’re never going to fully standardise, but the benefit of real-time monitoring systems is creating a consistent method to track and analyse performance data.” If all your teams work from a single, reliable source of truth it eliminates discrepancies and improves collaboration. 

“We used to waste so much time reconciling data from different systems—now, you can have everything in one place.”

4. Productivity wins

Live data systems also make it easier to measure and reduce downtime.

For example, analysing production interruptions with live data allows you to pinpoint the most significant causes of lost output. While an overflowing tank may seem like a major issue because it’s highly visible, a pump that trips less frequently might cause far greater losses. Using CMMS data for downtime reporting can identify these types of issues. By categorising and prioritising downtime events, plant operators can focus on high-impact fixes.

Additionally, it enables comparisons between shifts or operating conditions. Variations in performance between teams or seasons can highlight opportunities for process improvements, training, or equipment upgrades. As Andrew explains, “If production is in the red and one machine is offline, you can quickly redirect fitters from routine maintenance to that breakdown. This prevents wasted time and ensures resources are focused on critical issues.”

“Live data visualisation helps align staff to work on the actual critical items rather than less impactful issues like a broken light or minor repainting.” With integrated systems, workflows become streamlined, and teams complete tasks faster and more efficiently.

5. Fewer human errors

We’ve all had a few “Oops, my bad!” moments from a plant and often there’s a costly ending to that story. Manual systems like paper logbooks and Excel production reports are prone to errors. As a result, engineers may spend days combing through handwritten records to troubleshoot an issue. Digitising these logs and integrating them into live data systems makes trends easier to spot and eliminates the need for tedious manual searches.

Andrew notes, “Most operations already gather a lot of live data, but they don’t fully utilise the manual data gathered from the lab, from maintenance technicians and from operators. If you use intermittent lab data results in conjunction with production data, operators can make the right process decisions. And one of the most important aspects of live data capture is live data visualisation—which often isn’t being done.”

Another type of human error occurs when people use compressed data incorrectly. “In one plant I worked in, we were missing the spike in pressure that was occurring in the second range because the data had been smoothed to reduce noise. People made incorrect assumptions, leading to wasted time and resources replacing a safety-critical component that was actually functioning as intended.”

Enable everyone around you

Implementing live data systems in your plant is all about enabling better operations at every level. “The ability to monitor operations in real-time has completely changed how we approach maintenance and safety—issues can now be addressed as they happen, not after the fact,” says Andrew.

Real-time monitoring lets you respond faster, make better decisions and improve resource allocation. Combined with productivity gains and fewer human errors, live data creates a foundation for both short-term efficiency and long-term strategic growth.

It might be time to audit the current workflows in your plant and assess if any areas are holding you back. Then, start making some changes to see the benefits of live data and better quality data.

Read more about Mipac's products

Mipac has delivered key changes to TCard in version 3.11.0: Enhanced Shutdown Management The shutdown functionality has been completely overhauled to improve …

In mining, getting the basics right delivers the most value. This is true in all areas of operations, but especially in mineral …

Process stability is a key driver to maximising production, enhancing safety and reducing waste. In this article we are going to provide some background and insight into how you can achieve operational excellence by managing variability to optimise production.

Subscribe

Enter your details to receive our newsletter

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

Request a
Demonstration

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our TCard brochure.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our MPA product guide.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our SMART Tankhouse brochure.

Download our Capability Statement

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our Capability Statement.

[contact-form-7 id="7624"]

Download our OT Vision to Delivery brochure

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our Capability Statement.

[contact-form-7 id="7623"]

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our E-Learning Brochure.

Request a
Demonstration

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

[contact-form-7 id="8762"]

Download TCard Case Study

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of the MIM Case Study.

[contact-form-7 id="8768"]

Register for Webinar

Simply fill out the below form and we will send you the details of the webinar directly to your email.

[contact-form-7 id="8833"]

Request a
Demonstration

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

Request a
Demonstration

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our TCard™ product guide.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our MPA Logsheets product guide.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our Digital TARP product guide.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our Capability Statement.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our ShortMeter product guide.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you our Copper Monitor™ product guide.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our SMART Tankhouse product guide.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our Alarm Manager product guide.

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

Simply fill out the below form and we will be in touch to discuss the best time for a demonstration.

Simply fill out the below form and we will email you a copy of our Copper Monitor brochure.