Essential Insight is a powerful system consisting of three individual components — the Engine, the Studio and the Portal. Essential Insight uses a relational database management system to store configuration information and production data. The system is network based, so it can be administered remotely by authorized personnel from any computer — in the plant, on a companywide network or with access to the network via the internet. This reduces support costs and allows personnel to manage multiple facilities from a single location.

Essential Insight Engine
The Engine communicates with the equipment on the factory floor via the network. It can communicate with any device with a known network or serial protocol, such as machinery, conveyors, tools, bar code scanners, RFID readers, etc. The Engine receives messages from the devices, breaks them down into defined components and then takes the appropriate action defined by your process logic.

Essential Insight Studio
The Studio is used to configure the system, allowing authorized personnel to define the interface to the equipment on the floor, organizing them into workstations that mirror your process. The system can be configured to match your process whether it is a continuous flow or work cell structure. The logic for your process resides in a workstation script, in the BASIC language, providing the ultimate flexibility to configure the logic to the exact functionality you need. The scripts can be modified at any time, even during production.

Essential Insight Portal
The Portal is an easy-to-use interface that allows users to add and modify data used by the system, as well as utilize its powerful reporting functions. Reference information like bills of material, component part numbers, lists of valid barcode formats, etc. can be updated easily. Reports can be generated through the Portal using information collected from your manufacturing process — for a specific instance of a product or on a broader view of production, such as last week’s production by hour. The website uses On-Line Analytic Processing (OLAP) techniques to allow the user to drill down into the data, providing analytical information which can identify opportunities for quality and process improvements, cost reductions and more.