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Tips and Limits

Writing effective questions​

Be specific about time ranges​

The assistant defaults to "today" or "last 7 days" if you do not specify a period. Being explicit gets better results:

VagueSpecific
"What is the OEE?""What was the OEE for Line 1 in the week of June 9–15, 2025?"
"Show me downtime""List the top 5 downtime reasons for all lines in June 2025"

Name your equipment correctly​

Use the exact equipment name as it appears in OpSee. If you are unsure, ask first:

"What are the names of the lines in the Antwerp site?"

Then use those names in follow-up questions.

Ask for comparisons​

The assistant is good at structured comparisons:

"Compare the OEE for Line 1, Line 2, and Line 3 for the morning shift this week"

Use follow-up questions​

Do not try to ask everything in one complex question. Start broad, then drill down:

  1. "What was the OEE for Line 1 last month?" — to get the overview
  2. "What drove the availability losses?" — to drill into the root cause
  3. "Which specific events lasted more than 30 minutes?" — to get the details

Specify the format you want​

"Give me the OEE breakdown as a table, one row per week, for the last 4 weeks"

Known limitations​

Real-time data​

The assistant queries the OpSee database at the moment you ask. It does not watch for changes and will not proactively alert you when OEE drops or an event occurs. For real-time monitoring, use the Cockpit or Production dashboards.

Time and timezone​

The assistant uses the server's timezone (UTC by default) when interpreting time expressions like "today" or "this week". If your plant is in a different timezone, specify dates explicitly to avoid boundary issues.

Maximum data volume​

Very large queries (all downtime events for all equipment for the past year) may exceed the assistant's context window. For large-scale analysis, use the OEE Analytics page or the AI's SQL tool (admin only) with appropriate filters.

Write operations​

The assistant can create and update schedule entries but cannot modify most other data (equipment, reasons, materials). Most administrative changes still require using the OpSee UI directly.

SQL tool (admin only)​

Administrators can ask the assistant to execute read-only SQL queries. This is powerful but requires knowledge of the OpSee database schema. If you run a query that returns no results when you expect data, the query may be targeting the wrong table or column.

Accuracy​

The assistant can make mistakes, especially for:

  • Complex multi-step calculations involving multiple equipment and time ranges
  • Questions about data that was entered inconsistently (e.g., mixed timezone entries)
  • Very recent events (< 5 minutes old) that may not yet be processed

Always verify critical numbers against the standard dashboards.

When to Use the AI vs. Dashboards​

SituationUse this
Ad-hoc question you have not asked beforeAI Assistant
Exploratory analysis comparing optionsAI Assistant
Regular morning OEE checkCockpit or Production OEE Dashboard
Real-time monitoring during a shiftCockpit in fullscreen
Teaching a supervisor to understand OEEAI Assistant (conversational explanation)
Reporting to management (monthly report)AI Assistant + OEE Analytics page

:::tip Think of the AI as a knowledgeable colleague You would ask a colleague to explain something or help you find an answer quickly, not to replace a dashboard you check 10 times a day. Use the AI for questions; use dashboards for monitoring. :::

Prerequisites​