New to data collection and storage

Good day all. I have been given a task to do and you guy's always come through so naturally, this is the first place I go. We have several processes and machinery that use Argon. We use a lot of it. Management wants me to install totalizer's at various points in our plant. I will not be able to go wireless (I don't think) because we have a lot of welding and metal spray processes that generate a lot of RFI. They want these transmitter's to keep a running total of how much each area uses the Argon. Being very new to data collection (I can't emphasize enough the "very new" part of this sentence), I don't even know where to begin. And any of you fellows that sell this equipment I am very interested in getting quotes. I have experience with RSLogix software, FT View (SE), and a little with MSAccess 2010. I need something that will collect the data, store it, and make it available via network connections, to several different managers. That is why I was thinking the MSAccess would be a great place to store it, as it is on all of our computer's throughout the plant. Whether it be a PLC or some other form of hardware for collecting the data, I'm wide open to ideas. Thank you much.

There are MANY options out there, really depends on how much you know about data collection. You don't have much experience it seems so if this is an "during your spare time" project, by all means try to learn, but if you are looking for a good quality result sooner than later you may want to bring someone in.

Real basic, you could always totalize in the PLC and show it on the HMI. Someone comes around with a clipboard writes the information down and clears the totalizer for the next round. Maybe every 24/48/72 hours kinda thing.

If you want to record it, get into an SQL setup. You can use SQL Express from Microsoft for free. The trick is getting the data from the PLC to the database. Scripting in an HMI works if you just need basic stuff. But large amounts would require a more sophisticated system. Plenty of software options for this, so you'll be paying for it. There are hardware options to, just depends on the product you need.

Once it's in SQL you need to get it out, you can do this with SQL Reporting services, however you need experience to create reports. But there are also packages out there that can do this too. One I can think of is HMI Reports? From Wonderware. I don't have experience with these "packaged" systems but the salesman always make it look easy.

Really depends on the final product management needs. Simply clipboard could be it, but if you want full network access with custom reports and global accessibility.....it's a different ball game.