Stop Scripting, Start Reporting: WinCC Unifieds Downtime-Free Reporting Solution
In the world of industrial automation, data is king. But raw data is useless without effective reporting. We need to track production counts, analyze alarm patterns, and generate audit trails. For years, creating truly custom reports often meant diving deep into complex scripting on top of this, it was based on using fixed reporting formats, which carried the inherent risk of stopping the runtime to modify—a costly non-starter for any 24/7 operation.
Siemens WinCC Unified, part of the TIA Portal ecosystem, fundamentally changes this paradigm. It offers a powerful, flexible, and—most importantly—downtime-free way to generate insightful reports by leveraging a tool every engineer already knows and trusts: Microsoft Excel.
The Power Duo: WinCC Unified and Excel
Instead of forcing you to learn a proprietary, rigid reporting tool, WinCC Unified integrates directly with Excel through a dedicated add-in. This approach is brilliant because it separates the design of the report from its execution.
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Report Design (in Excel): You create and format your report templates in the familiar Excel environment. This is where you define what data to show, how it looks, and what calculations to perform.
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Report Execution (in Runtime): The WinCC Unified HMI takes your Excel template and handles the rest. It automatically populates the data based on live events, without ever needing to stop the process.
This workflow means you can create complex, professional reports without writing a single line of script or risking plant operations.
How It Works: A Simple, No-Scripting Workflow
Creating a custom report is a straightforward configuration process that can be broken down into five simple stages.
1. Design Your Template in Excel: Using the "WinCC Unified Reporting" add-in in Excel, you connect to your runtime project. This can even be done with an offline configuration file, so you don't need to be connected to the live system. You then add various data source items to your spreadsheet, such as:
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Logged historical data (tags)
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Logged alarms and alarm statistics
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Live tag values
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Audit trail data for traceability
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Context-based data (e.g., information tied to a specific batch)
2. Format and Visualize: This is where the power of Excel shines. You are not limited to basic tables. You can:
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Add your company logo, headers, and footers.
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Create dynamic charts and graphs.
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Use pivot tables for advanced data analysis.
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Apply conditional formatting to highlight key values (e.g., red for out-of-spec readings).
3. Upload the Template to the HMI: Once your template is ready, you simply import the .xlsx file directly into the "Reports" control on a screen in your WinCC Unified project.
4. Configure the Report Job (Without Stopping the Runtime!: This is the game-changing step. From the live HMI screen, you configure how and when your report should be generated. You define a "Report Job" with specific triggers, including:
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Manual: An operator pushes a button on the screen.
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Serial (Time-based): Automatically runs at the end of every hour, shift, or day.
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Tag Trigger: Runs when a specific PLC tag reaches a certain value (e.g., a batch counter is complete).
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Context Trigger: Runs when a specific event starts or stops, perfect for batch reporting.
5. Define the Target and Format: Finally, you decide what to do with the finished report. The system can automatically:
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Save it to a local file system and mail it without storing locally, the choice is yours. So may ways to save the report.
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Email it to a predefined list of recipients (e.g., shift managers, quality control).
You can also choose whether the final output is a fully-functional XLSX file or a secure PDF.
The Key Advantage: Zero Downtime and Global Accessibility
The beauty of this system is its robust separation of tasks. An engineer can design a complex new report template in Excel without ever touching the running system. Then, a manager or operator can adjust the reporting schedule or email recipients on the fly, directly from the HMI, without causing any interruption to production.
Unleash Your Data: Remote Access from Anywhere
WinCC Unified’s native web-based technology extends this flexibility beyond the plant floor. Since the reports are generated and stored on the HMI, they are immediately available through the WinCC Unified web client.
This means a plant manager on a business trip or an engineer working from home can securely log into the HMI from any device with a web browser. From there, they can navigate to the reports screen and download the latest end-of-shift summary, alarm analysis, or batch report. It’s the same PDF or XLSX file, accessible from anywhere in the world. This removes physical barriers and enables faster, better-informed decision-making.
It’s not just about creating reports easily; it’s about making them accessible to the right people, at the right time, no matter where they are.
To see this process in action, check out this excellent tutorial from Siemens: https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/document/109828415/wincc-unified-reporting-installation-and-configuration?dti=0&lc=en-WW