Frequently Asked Questions

General Information

What is Factorian?

Factorian processes large volumes of real-time and historical data; connects to various sources, archives information; and provides tools for monitoring and visualization. It’s ideal for manufacturing and many industries including pharmaceuticals and biotech; chemicals; energy; utilities; equipment and parts; consumer goods; and construction materials.

Factorian addresses the challenges associated with current archaic machine data systems, including managing multiple software, hardware, and networking components; high lifecycle costs; complex and costly changes; and lack of support for Industry 4.0. Factorian simplifies data collection from various sources, storage, and access by providing a unified, plug-and-play solution that eliminates the need for complex integration and lifecycle management.
Factorian enhances operational efficiency and quality, and significantly slashes lifecycle costs by providing real-time and historical insights. It makes monitoring performance, detecting anomalies, and making data-driven decisions easy. The platform’s features, such as real-time alerts, scalable data storage, and system integration (or displacement) capabilities, support a wide range of industrial and operational needs. Digital transformation and Industry 4.0 easily becomes a reality.
Factorian consolidates all the layers of data management—Connect, Archive, Context, and Report—into one integrated platform. By offering a plug-and-play service with pre-configured hardware and software, the need for separate systems and their support is reduced markedly, making data management much simpler and less resource-intensive.
Factorian offers comprehensive support as part of its subscription service. This includes technical assistance and consulting, development and modelling support, system maintenance, and user training. High priority needs are rapidly responded to and solved.

Features

What data sources can Factorian connect to?

Factorian easily connects to various data sources including sensors, SCADA systems, databases, and other operational or GxP systems. It supports both native and aggregated data streams, providing a comprehensive integrated view of your operational data.

Factorian provides real-time data access and can generate alerts based on predefined conditions or thresholds. This allows users to monitor live data and receive instant notifications about critical events or anomalies.
Factorian utilizes a time-series centric database optimized for high-frequency sampling and data storage. It efficiently manages large volumes of time-stamped data from various sources, supporting long-term (multi-year) archival and enabling detailed historical analysis.
Auto-scaling allows expansion as your data needs grow. Simply connect additional devices to increase capacity for more tags, data streams, sources, storage, and computing power. The plug-and-play devices immediately start communicating with each other.

Contextual data is the background information that provides a broader understanding of an event, item, process, or batch.

Factorian  provides contextual transformations to process and analyze data effectively. This includes transforming raw data into meaningful information and ensuring that data from various sources is correctly contextualized for accurate and rapid analysis.

Yes, users can set up custom alerts based on specific data conditions, acceptance criteria, or thresholds. These alerts can notify users in real-time about significant excursions, trend changes, and potential problems.

Factorian offers a range of visualization interfaces de novo and low code tools for easily creating dashboards, charts, and graphs. Users can customize user interfaces and visualizations to monitor processes and metrics, trends, patterns, and anomalies. 

Factorian is delivered as a hardware/software service and is optimized to run on industrial grade hardware bundled with a service subscription.
Factorian integrates with various third-party systems, databases, and applications through APIs and connectors. This facilitates seamless interoperability with existing IT infrastructure and enhances data accessibility within the Factorian platform for the organization.

Factorian ensures compliance with industry standards and regulations through features such as role-based access control, and audit trails. These measures protect data integrity, confidentiality, and compliance with regulatory requirements. 

For regulated life science industry customers, the platform is 21 CFR Part 11 compliant.