Events
What is an Event?
An event is a time-bound occurrence linked to an asset. It describes something that happened in your process, such as a production batch or maintenance activity.
Events have a start time and end time, and can include additional information like type, batch IDs, duration and other properties.
Data for events can come from the Historian, stored as Measurements or Calculations (directly or as Asset Properties), external databases, or manual entry.
Why does it matter?
Time-series data in Factry Historian shows how values change over time. Events give meaning to those changes by describing what happened and when.
They help you:
- Analyze unplanned downtime (what are the main reasons for it?)
- Track product changes or operator shifts (what was the batch ID at this point in time?)
- Identify causes of performance loss (did we notice a blocking event somewhere?)
- Create timelines and contextual reports (show me the output KPIs for last week's production for article X).
Events turn raw data into information you can act on by giving it context.
How does it fit in the system?
Events are always linked to an asset and exist alongside measurements, calculations and asset properties. They are used to describe specific time intervals of interest.
There are four main ways events are triggered:
- Automatically, based on logic applied to measurements or calculations (e.g. when the status tag goes to a 'running' state)
- Automatically, based on a schedule (e.g. a shift schedule)
- Automatically, by importing from external systems (e.g. an MES)
- Manually, by users entering or editing events
Each event has:
- Start and end timestamps
- An event type
- A trigger
An event can have:
- Zero or more simple properties (e.g. the batch ID or total energy consumption)
- Zero or more periodic properties (e.g. temperature sampled throughout the batch)
- A parent event (e.g. a CIP cycle could be an event as part of a larger 'batch' event)
Unlike measurements, events describe something that happened over a period of time for a specific asset, rather than individual values.
Example
You configure an event type called LineStop, which is triggered when the line speed is below 0.1 for more than 60 seconds.
If the line stops at 13:12:20 and starts again at 13:18:05, an event is generated:
- Type: LineStop
- Start: 2025-08-12 13:12:20
- End: 2025-08-12 13:18:05
- Duration: 5 minutes 45 seconds
- Asset: Line3.Conveyor
- OrderID: L131-ABC
- Reason: Insufficient feed material
This event is now available in dashboards, reports, and can be used for performance analysis.
When you use it
You will use events when:
- Building shift or batch reports
- Monitoring machine stops
- Investigating root causes of production loss
- Visualizing state transitions on a timeline
- Tagging data with context for future analysis
You also use event configurations to define how automatic events should be detected.
Common misconceptions
- Events are not time series. They represent a start and end time, not a sequence of values.
- They are not limited to stops or batches. Any condition or change can be an event if it matters to your operation.
- Event logic does not always run in real time. In some cases, events are backfilled or reprocessed.
- Different event types can coexist on an asset and may describe overlapping time periods. However, each event type can only be configured once per asset.
Best practices
- Use clear names for event types and event properties.
- Configure metadata when configuring event properties, so that these are automatically reflected in the panels when querying data.
- Use the 'Re-evaluate' functionality to reprocess events over time, when trigger logic or additional properties have been added, and after validation
More information
- Configuring an eventConfiguring an event
- Adding event propertiesAdding event properties
- Trending Event Periodic PropertiesTrending Event Periodic Properties