KB00868 recommends Asset Analytics as the right job, but there are some major limitations that inhibit ease of use and deployment, specifically around operations on >1 attribute or tag simultaneously.
To improve this, AF analyses functions that take in data of type "attribute attname" should be able to process an expression that returns type attribute. Perhaps limited to periodic analyses other toggleable somehow, as there is potential to use a lot of CPU cycles.
== Example 1: Totalized Mass Flow ==
Given FIT-001 and DIT-002, return the totalized mass flow (say, kg) over an interval. The current process:
1. Create short-interval periodic, or event-based analyses to write the product of flow & density to a tag-linked attribute WIT-003 (I don't think you can use an attribute as we care about the history).
2. TagTot(WIT-003, '*'. '*-1w')
Better solution:
AF should be able to see that I'm asking for a 1-week total of an expression, so run the expression and totalize the result.
TagTot((FIT-001 * DIT-002), '*'. '*-1w')
This is basically what the SUMPRODUCT function in Excel does, and we haven't found a better way to do it in AF yet.
== 2. Conditional Expressions ==
We monitor processes and create KPIs for utilization and value delivered. PIAF makes it cumbersome to compute utilization or value based on multiple conditions. Utilization of an application APP-001 might depend on x=1, y=2, z=3.
Current process:
1. Create short-interval periodic, or event-based analyses to write the result of ('x' = 1) AND ('y' = 2) AND ('z' = 3) to a tag-based attribute, MYTAG-001.
2. Create an analysis to run TimeEq('MYTAG-001', '*', '*-1w', 'true')
Better solution:
AF should be able to process something like this:
TimeEq((('x' = 1) AND ('y' = 2) AND ('z' = 3)), '*', '*-1w', 'true')
The current process is inefficient and a bad use of tags (both a waste of a tag license and adding a low-value intermediary calculated result to the data archive). There are also complexities around scheduling the preliminary analytics to ensure the results are ready for the insight-generating analytics.
Thanks for your feedback. I'd also be overjoyed to hear there's an easy solution we're overlooking.
