Unlike factory automation where the PC controls the machinery directory, supervisory control systems are used for overall monitoring and batch control of factory automation devices. This allows you monitor processes, change setpoints, perform logging and data analysis, and do alarming, all from your office PC or a separate plant floor PC. If you are using PLCs for factory automation, DAQFactory can connect to them over serial or Ethernet using one of several available protocols or through an OPC server and retrieve data and adjust set points. If you are using DAQFactory systems for your factory automation, or as HMIs on the plant floor, your office PC can connect to them using DAQFactory networking, allowing display and control of data in real time. Data arriving through DAQFactory networking appear in the DAQFactory system as regular data, so you can use all the tools you would use to create factory automation and/or HMI systems in your supervisory system.

One example of a supervisory system is at a resort in the Caribbean. The resort uses DAQFactory to monitor all the water systems, from fresh water and hot water for the resort guests to irrigation systems for the golf course. All the data is sent to a central monitoring room and displayed on giant 30" monitors. Built in alarming alerts staff when the hot water system fails in the middle of the night, allowing them to fix the problem before any guests notice. DAQFactory has also alerted them to water leaks that they didn't even know they had, saving valuable fresh water and of course money.