What is a data logger? A handy electronic device? Check. A tool for monitoring, recording and analysing the environmental parameter of choice like temperature, humidity, voltage, pressure or vibration? Check. A way to sample the real world, turn it into data, and turn that data into all sorts of powerful business benefits? Check again.
Imagine sitting with a thermometer and writing down the temperature in a room every hour – that’s a human being behaving like a simple data logger. With sensors, computer chips and highly sophisticated analytical tools, electronic data loggers do the hard work for you in a much more accurate, reliable and useful way, saving you time and expense and turning data, knowledge and interpreted analytics into better processes, better decisions, and better businesses.
But what are the data loggers that your business really needs to know about? Here are 4 of the most important:
- Temperature logger
Monitoring and understanding temperature is crucial across so many manufacturing industries. From handling to shipping and beyond, the supply chain is a highly complex entity to manage, but the smart deployment of a temperature logger (or multiple loggers) means those temperature-sensitive areas of options are constantly being managed. When something abnormal is detected, the production manager can be swiftly alerted and prompted into action.
- Humidity logger
Similarly, humidity is also a crucial atmospheric condition for many businesses to monitor – whether your premises has warehouses, greenhouses or calibration rooms. Any data logger can either record the values, or be part of a system that it programmed to be checking for certain upper or lower set limits that can alert the operators or decision-makers in real time.
- Pressure/vibration loggers
As we’ve indicated, there are many different kinds of data loggers, so let’s cover two more of the really common ones: pressure loggers, and vibration loggers. Pressure loggers are extremely handy for measuring the pressure of a liquid or gas, which perform crucial duties for monitoring levels, heights, depths, speeds and fluid flow. A vibration or shock data logger works with the help of accelerometers, helping you to know when those shakes, whacks, impacts, jolts or other movements may be becoming damaging.
- Wireless loggers
Finally, we’re not going to talk about one more environmental characteristic monitored by data loggers – we’re going to talk about the latest and most innovative way that data loggers work: wirelessly. These devices have become indispensable for real-time logging, but arguably the most valuable benefit is that they can be operated remotely – no matter where you are with your web-based device.
For those who work along the supply chain, the use of data loggers has become absolutely crucial for running smoother operations and making more timely and vastly better-informed decisions. Cost-cutting, time-saving, decision-making and efficiency-boosting is easy with the right data loggers, so to get started, ask yourself these questions:
* What data do you want to measure?
* Where will you put your data logger?
* How often do you need the information?
By answering those questions, you’re more than half-way there to getting your business up to date with the era of sophisticated electronic data logging. Good luck!
