October, 201819MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSBig Data in Manufacturing: It's Not Just for Predictive Maintenance AnymoreBy Jeff Cotrupe, Industry Director, Frost and SullivanAs recently as 18 months ago, most of the conversations manufacturing companies were having with us at Stratecast's Big Data & Analytics (BDA) practice focused on their interest in predictive maintenance: identifying degrading parts or performance in equipment so they can be repaired or replaced before they shut down production lines. Manufacturers that have installed sensors on their manufacturing equipment can collect data, and perform predictive analytics against that data, to avoid breakdowns on the production line, as well as other delays and bottlenecks. This is the definition of predictive maintenance in manufacturing, and it parallels similar activity that first occurred in the telecommunications industry long ago. By detecting so-called performance faults, communications service providers (CSPs) began to proactively identify problems that were likely to occur, and thus to repair or replace a piece of networking equipment before it broke down and interrupted communications services. Manufacturers are now beginning to follow this same sound business practice.As beneficial as this is, however, predictive maintenance impacts only one area of a manufacturer's operations. BDA has the potential to leverage data collected through the Internet of Things (IoT)--and 40 other areas--to do much more across the enterprise. Today, manufacturers are beginning to use BDA to synergize data from all sources to create opportunities and value across the enterprise, as highlighted in the gold text boxes along the right edge of the graphic.By using BDA to synergize IoT and all types of data across the organization, manufacturers can achieve what to many is the Holy Grail: commercial decision insight, where device and system data helps drive business decisions about potential product features and markets. Aggregated over time, BDA can help identify trends so companies can anticipate and plan for the future. The opportunities this creates include:· Manufacturing to Meet the Market. Manufacturers must integrate IoT and other production-focused data with the wide range of other data sources at their disposal--such as warranty, call center, and social media data--to get early warnings of perceived and actual problems. One example: learning through social CXO INSIGHTSBy using BDA to synergize IoT and all types of data across the organization, manufacturers can achieve what to many is the Holy Grail: commercial decision insight
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