Manufacturing data analytics

There is no doubt that we are witnessing an authentic technical revolution. Call it Industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, or Artificial Intelligence (AI); the proliferation of solutions facilitating Industry 4.0 is accelerating. Whatever the perspective is with which we look at this fast-paced evolution, there is an asset that is at the center of everything: data.

Once all of that data is created and stored, the question is how to use it. Advanced analytics are a way to transform the data lakes of structured and unstructured data from different data sources such as sensors, MES and ERP into information about what is happening.

Transform data into insights

Combining data from information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) is essential to analysis and insights. Thus, coherent and consistent plant data is a foundation for achieving the agility and business value companies need. However there are some obstacles:

The challenge

• Hard to get OT into IT Data Sets
• Difficult to analyze IT and OT data together
• IT and OT systems have conflicting data
• Inability to put all data needed into context for Continuous Improvement
• Uncertainty on what data to collect and store
• Not clear which data should be enhanced with context

The solution

• Collect data from many distributed sources in many formats
• Clean the data to eliminate errors
• Normalize the data to come to agreement and coherent picture
• Store the data that can best help make decisions to improve Ensuring that stored data is consistent
• Enrich data with context – from other data streams typically
• Analyze data both for instant plant action and off-line

This entire process is needed for continuous improvement (CI) programs such lean and six sigma. It is also the foundation for data analytics, whether traditional or more advanced.

While commercial solutions, necessarily designed for typified use cases, might result either in very high TCO or end-up very far from the required results, quite frequently the best approach are customer tailored solutions, built around reliable and feature rich platforms, by companies with proven experience in the field.

With several reference cases in Data Analytics and Manufacturing Business Intelligence areas, Critical Manufacturing has been able to deliver solutions that successfully meet its customer functional requirements, while efficiently resolving the biggest challenges comprehended in this area.