We recently chose to use Dream Report for the first time on a new custom medical device machine. We didn't need too many different reports but the data the reports presented was critical and necessary for compliance purposes (21 CFR Part 11).
The architecture comprised of Factory Talk View SE v11, MSSQL Server Express, a Compact GuardLogix 5380 controller, Kinetix 5500 servo drives, an Epson robot and Dream Report v5.0 R19-3. All software was loaded on one industrial panel PC with no server.
Not having attended any training or having any prior experience with it, we dove straight in. It was a very smooth installation and activation process. The many tutorial videos available proved to be very useful in learning how to navigate Dream Report Studio.
For the machine, three different data sets were being logged to MSSQL using Factory Talk View SE - custom data using Datalog functions, alarms using Alarm and Events History setup and operator audit log using the Diagnostic Log. Setting up Dream Report to access the data was fairly simple using open communication protocols and more specifically the Advanced ODBC driver functionality. Since the data was indexed, the driver allowed for simple data mapping between tables.
Overall the Dream Report integration to SQL was very straight forward and did not require any scripting.
The next step was to use the "Batch Definition" functionality. I used this video to get the basic understanding. The video references Wonderware but the concepts are similar for Factory Talk View SE. The Batch definition was ideal for the customer requirement which was to automatically generate and print a report at the completion of each Batch without operator intervention. The Batch definition allowed us to easily get Batch start times, stop times, duration, unique Batch ID's and associated data and alarms into the reports with minimal effort.
The advanced appearance functionality allowed us to very easily present data in a contextualized fashion. For example the report can display equipment type descriptions instead of 0, 1, 2 or 3.
We did run into an issue when trying to get real time values from Factory Talk View SE v11 as only v10 was supported at the time. This resulted in us using an OPC server as a workaround - we only needed a few real time tags.
Some other functions that were easy to use were the Generate Report on Event, automatically delete reports older than x number of days and Print Report to PDF and printer.
The run time environment allows you to run dynamic reports based on the Batch ID as well. This was great for development and test purposes. For general operation we set up Dream Report to run as a service and automatically print reports without having to access the run time environment.
Throughout the project I did need some assistance for which I used the support options. Support is via email and they usually end up sending you an answer in response or setting up a remote session to assist. The sales representative was also extremely knowledgeable and helpful and always available via phone.
It took me a little while to figure out the alarm reporting and filtering but once the support team member walked me through, I got the hang of it.
Due to client confidentiality I can not share any of the completed reports. There are however quite a few examples in the demo project that loads with the software.
Overall the software was not complicated to use. The studio presented functionality with minimal to no scripting or mapping required. The price was scalable and pricing is tag/web client based. I would definitely recommend Dream Report for a machine reporting application again.
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