From Spreadsheets to Smart Decisions: How CONNECT Eliminates Manual Reporting

Still emailing Excel files back and forth? There's a better way.

Every Monday morning, someone opens Excel, copies data from multiple systems, creates charts, and emails reports to management. By Tuesday, the data is outdated. By Wednesday, someone requests a different view, starting the process over.

This manual reporting cycle wastes time, delays decisions, and keeps insights from the people who need them.

The Manual Reporting Problem

Carson City Public Works managed water, wastewater, transportation, and power systems with data spread across separate systems. Staff spent hours manually collecting and consolidating information before analyzing what it meant for operations.

When problems required immediate attention, teams first gathered data from various sources and formatted it for analysis. Critical time was lost in data collection rather than problem-solving.

Automated Reporting Results

Carson City Public Works implemented CONNECT across their municipal systems and achieved mobile access capabilities that eliminated manual reporting processes. Team members can now access operational data and share information immediately when coordinating responses.

Results: 15% reduction in operations staff hours due to eliminated manual processes and saved drive time. This allowed them to shift from five eight-hour days to four ten-hour days while maintaining service levels.

"The ability for our engineers and operators to use the iPad and smart phones for controlling city services has greatly increased situational awareness and allowed us to become more efficient," said Darren Schulz, Deputy Public Works Director.

Manufacturing Scale Implementation

Schneider Electric's Lexington facility connected over 300 PLCs and 1,200 data points through CONNECT, replacing manual paperwork processes with automated reporting.

Results: 90% reduction in manual paperwork. Instead of operators filling forms and supervisors compiling reports manually, the system automatically captures operational data and generates standardized reports.

Supervisors can set alarm limits on critical parameters and receive automated notifications when conditions require attention. Instead of discovering problems through scheduled reports, they get immediate alerts enabling proactive responses.

Enterprise Operations

Dominion Energy's system automatically generates email summaries of overnight events across 28,000 assets, including which assets were added, retired, and how data was mapped.

The platform runs over 135,000 analyses continuously, performing calculations and issuing notifications automatically. Teams start each day with complete situational awareness delivered automatically rather than spending mornings gathering information.

Manufacturing Analytics and Reporting

Nestlé's Waverly factory demonstrates how automated analytics replace manual sampling and reporting. Previously, operators took manual samples every 30-60 minutes to check powder moisture and density, creating lagging indicators and requiring manual compilation of quality reports.

Using CONNECT with AVEVA Advanced Analytics, they deployed real-time analytics that automatically generate insights and recommendations. Instead of waiting for manual sample results and creating reports after the fact, operators receive continuous guidance based on real-time data analysis.

The transformation delivered immediate results: 10% product savings in an eight-hour trial by eliminating the need to overfill containers based on delayed manual measurements.

From Data Collection to Analysis

The transformation: teams shifted from spending time collecting data to analyzing insights and taking action.

At Carson City, James Jacklett, electrical/signal supervisor, noted: "Integration with AVEVA has enabled real-time status, alarm notification, and historization for effective monitoring of the City's transportation, power and water systems, providing us with better operational readiness."

The Speed Advantage

Organizations with automated reporting respond to challenges faster than competitors using manual processes. When supply chain disruptions occur, they immediately assess impacts across production, inventory, and quality systems. When equipment performance changes, they receive automatic notifications rather than discovering problems through delayed reports.

Making It Work

CONNECT integrates data from SCADA systems, historians, maintenance management systems, quality databases, and external sources. The platform handles complex data integration and formatting, allowing personnel to configure reports that meet specific needs.

The key is eliminating manual steps that create delays between data generation and decision-making. When reports generate automatically and deliver insights in real-time, teams focus on optimization rather than administration.

Your operational systems generate valuable data continuously, but manual reporting creates delays between data availability and decision-making. Automated reporting eliminates these delays while providing operational intelligence that enables immediate action.

Ready to eliminate manual reporting delays? Contact us to explore automated reporting capabilities for your operation.

Have questions? Contact us at marketing@california.avevaselect.com today.