How Electronic Batch Records And Device History Records Close The Digital Manufacturing Gap

By Brian Curran, Senior VP of Strategic Growth, MasterControl

Many manufacturers already leverage a number of software solutions. Common enterprise applications in a manufacturing IT ecosystem include enterprise resource planning (ERP), learning management system (LMS), quality management system (QMS), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and more. It’s fairly common to hear the term “islands of automation” because a paper-based production record doesn’t pull together the data from these systems.

All of these systems are generating, consuming, and outputting data, but where’s your data for your production record? It’s locked away, in paper, that’s probably in bankers’ boxes stored in some secure location.

Knowing what happened with previous production runs or with production runs at different sites and/or shifts is like looking at a black box. This valuable data is trapped on the paper and inaccessible.

By improving data integrity, increasing visibility, and optimizing production processes, fully connected, digital production records close the digital manufacturing gap that persists on the shop floor – ultimately giving manufacturers access to better data to drive better, smarter business decisions.