What technology do I need to measure the efficiency of my packaging manufacturing lines automatically? SCADA? For many people, SCADA (Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition System) is the first kind of system that comes to mind when thinking about a shop floor software. And indeed SCADA systems are quite flexible and therefore can supply custom demands a manufacturing plant. But when talking about OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency - see more here ), there are several key points to have in mind. OEE is strongly dependent on counters and unlike other time-series variables such as temperature and speed, counters only make sense when you consider the value within a time-frame. Usually it will be shift, day, week and jobs. So analysing performance of a job means aggregate the counter increment within the job period. And there are several other characteristics that add complexity to the case: when is counter reset on the PLC? How to get a fast query response of total production during a shift if the counter was reset during this period? How to get quick response on reports for longer periods, such as month to month?   The challenge is no longer on how many tags and…