Provision
Provision Your System
The ThinkIQ platform runs in the cloud and it is sold as Software as a Service (SaaS).
To get your instance of the platform going, reach out to a ThinkIQ representative. You can email or call us using the contact details at the bottom of this page, or visit our website at thinkiq.com and initiate a chat right away!
Once you are ready to build a ThinkIQ system, it takes minutes to provision.
Depending upon your needs, we will provision a ThinkIQ platform with the level of capability that suits the path you are on in your digital journey:
- Vision™
- Generates big data where none exists leveraging cameras and machine vision.
- Visualize™
- Provides connectivity, storage, basic modelling, with applications process layout, trend and process stability
- Insight™
- Visualize plus the material model, material ledger, material flow diagram and material process analyzer
- Transform™
- Insight plus closed-loop abilities and script scheduling
- Autonomy™
- Transform plus multi-enterprise support
After logging into your new portal, you will see what system you are running by looking in the left footer of your portal web page.
Connect
Connect To Your Data Sources
The ThinkIQ system is all about making sense of your data.
Step one is to get your data into the system. To get your data into the system, you are going to use Gateways and Connectors. Gateways and connectors let you connect to a wide range of data sources.
Gateways provide connection and send your data to the ThinkIQ platform. The protocol for these connections is OPC UA.
Connectors create access to your data on premise and send that data via the Gateway to your instance of ThinkIQ in the cloud. Connectors can connect to many data sources using a variety of protocols. Via connectors you can connect to:
- traditional historians such as AVEVA's System Platform (formerly Wonderware) and PI System (formerly OSIsoft PI System)
- OPC Classic sources such as Live Data sources from legacy devices
- OPC UA sources that connect to Live Data sources, Information models, and historical data from more modern applications on the plant floor
- FLEDGE, and other open-source connectors
Finally, you can connect to your Business Systems. Data in your ERP and MES systems are accessible by ThinkIQ connectors to surface data about Material Receipts and Finished Goods Shipments into your ThinkIQ model.
If you don't want to immediately connect to your own data sources, feel free to connect to Simulator. You can connect to Simulator on your own computer and have it send data just like a connector would over the internet. Connecting the Simulator will give you data that you can play with and will validate that the connectivity exists for Gateways and Connectors on premise to be able to connect to and send their data to ThinkIQ.
Model
Build your Model
ThinkIQ is a Model-Centric and Model-Driven system. A well-designed model drives the success of the entire system. A well designed system will actively use the model for visualization, navigation, analysis, expressions, scripting, and search. The model gives the information in the system context and meaning. It is therefore important to understand the basic modeling concepts before building a model.
The model is a sophisticated tool with great depth, but you can get started slowly. Read our guide on how to develop your model with confidence and start revealing troves of information about your manufacturing processes.
Explore
Explore your Process
ThinkIQ provides many out-of-the-box tools to analyze your manufacturing processes and learn more about where improvements can be made. Whether it is better energy consumption, less waste, or better quality products, analysis is only as good as the data available, and the tools to analyze that data.
The model you create allows you to organize and give context to your processes. You can view and analyze the output of your model by exploring Process Layouts. The Process Layout diagram is an auto-generated picture of the Equipment model of your plant and can contain key production figures right in the diagram. You can create several Process Layout diagrams that focus on different manufacturing lines, specific equipment configurations, or different kinds of 'can-feed' relationships such as energy consumption.
From the Process Layout diagram you can easily browse to context-driven Trends, Item Details pages, Material Flow diagrams, and even right back into the model where the equipment definitions live.
Refine
Refine your Experience
Building your ThinkIQ system is an additive process. You can take it step-by-step, starting with one part of your process and slowly moving through your entire plant. If you are a multi-plant organization, modeling for one plant can be exported and imported into another ThinkIQ system, keeping your investment valid and valuable.
You can refine your model by adding your own specific Equipment Types and then building Equipment Instances that leverage the new Type. These Types are stored in your own local library and can be exported if desired.