GE Digital Proficy Operations Hub 2022

Proficy Operations Hub is a centralized software environment from GE Digital that allows end users to quickly build industrial applications that integrate data from disparate systems, as well as other facilities, in a low-code/no-code environment.

Recently, GE Digital announced Proficy Operations Hub 2022, which features several updates. According to GE Digital, new features of the software include improved rapid application development using cloud infrastructure via Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services and third-party systems integration enabled by OPC UA.

Proficy Operations Hub’s new data flow editor is capable of creating runtime logic to format data for visualizations to enhance MES (manufacturing execution system), HMI (human machine interface), SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition), and historian applications. It also features a new multi-timeline widget that can be used to enhance the display of event-based data such as downtime and equipment utilization metrics, according to GE Digital.

A key aspect of Proficy Operation Hub 2022 is its low-code/no-code environment which allows developers and non-developers to quickly arrange pre-developed widgets to create operator and supervisor visualization dashboards. The drag-and-drop development environment allows for intuitive placement and configuration of visualization components on the display. Queries or data sources can be dragged onto these visual components in the development environment to enable data connections.

In its announcement of the Proficy Operations Hub update, GE Digital highlighted use of the software by European energy company Engie, which worked with system integrator Control and Protection Automation (CPA) to expand remote and local monitoring and control using Proficy Operations Hub. CPA used Proficy Operation Hub’s rapid application development capabilities to create reusable objects for the development of high-performance HMI operator screens and data dashboards, as well as adding geographic information system functionality.

Industrial Software Platform Trends

Proficy Operations Hub—and software platforms like it—are becoming increasingly popular throughout industry for a variety of reasons:

Centralized Data Access: Cloud-based or otherwise centralized repositories of data grant end users a “single source of truth” for large datasets gathered from disparate systems and facilities. By synchronizing this data, these platforms can enable end-to-end planning and visibility that would be difficult or impossible to achieve if local, on-premises servers were used instead.
No Code/Low Code: In the past, applications for industrial equipment required developers to write in a proprietary code. This meant that should the original programmer no longer be available, operating and maintaining the system could become difficult. In a no-code/low-code environment, programming is often graphically oriented and allows for programming of applications without specific coding expertise.
Visual Dashboarding: Many common equipment and performance metrics must be contextualized with other data and interpreted before they can yield any valuable insights. Because of this, software applications that provide data visualizations via dashboards in a simple, easily digestible format continue to become more common. These dashboards can visually plot various types of time-series and historical data to help operators more easily identify performance trends. The ability to view and compare these metrics allows end users to see patterns that otherwise might go unnoticed.