After two days of hosting roundtables with a variety of manufacturers at the recent Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit hosted by The Manufacturer, it quickly became apparent that manufacturing businesses across the board are struggling with the challenges of industrial data management.
Historically viewed as a problem for ‘big’ companies, this issue is now impacting manufacturers of all sizes as the number of systems utilised by manufacturing companies exponentially increases. This proliferation of data sources across manufacturing organisations is being driven by a variety of factors including:
- rapid advancements in technology
- increasing digitisation to collect, integrate, and analyse data from across the business
- growing regulatory compliance burdens
Companies are struggling with several key challenges in their industrial data management:
Integration challenges
Data integration from multiple disparate sources, such as CRM systems, IoT devices on the shop floor, and ERP systems, can be complex. Solving these data fragmentation issues is fundamental to gaining a unified view of operations.
Quality of data
Data quality and accuracy remain the bane of many project teams tasked with data management projects. Poor quality data can quickly lead to mistrust in analytics and impede the business’s decision-making process. It also leads to business leaders questioning the value of any future initiatives to better utilise data. This cost (in both monetary and resource terms) versus perceived benefits question came up a lot during our recent industrial data roundtables.
Skills gap
As technology advances, the need for skills in machine learning, data analysis, and AI is growing. Many existing workers lack these technical skills, and the speed of transformation is exceeding the rate at which workers can be trained. This leads to increased competition for the limited pool of skilled workers available in the market, so even when manufacturers do find the right talent, retaining them can be challenging.
Over the coming months, we will be digging deeper into three of the most critical business areas that our manufacturing customers and prospects have told us have been heavily impacted by their growing industrial data management requirements.
- Compliance and Sustainability
- Supply Chain Visibility
- Smart Factory and AI
We will be sharing their challenges, why these were key for their business, the solutions they put into place, and some of the benefits they have seen from addressing their data issues.
Compliance and sustainability
Our first article links back to the increasing burden of data management and compliance. We will be a deeper dive into industrial data in the context of sustainability in manufacturing. Sustainability is a topic that cannot be ignored any longer. At last count, over 150 countries had net-zero targets, which means that most manufacturers are likely to operate in regions where there are now, or soon will be, regulations that require reporting on carbon emissions.
As organisations come under increasing regulatory pressure to act in this area, they will need to become more proficient at pinpointing the sources of carbon as well as accurately reporting their products’ carbon costs, which is impossible without data. For a case study, click here .
Supply chain visibility
Article number two will look at the increasingly crucial role of industrial data management in enhancing supply chain visibility for manufacturers. From real-time tracking of products and materials throughout the supply chain to comprehensive data that enables manufacturers to make informed decisions about inventory management, production scheduling, and logistics.
Increased visibility of the extended supply chain also allows manufacturers to proactively develop contingency plans in the face of continuing supply chain disruptions. Increasing your visibility into the supply chain is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity for manufacturers. For a working example, click here.
Smart Factories with connected workers and AI
The third article in our series will delve into a topic that is a personal favourite of mine (as a card-carrying manufacturing nerd), industrial data as it relates to smart manufacturing. Industrial data management is a cornerstone of smart manufacturing, enabling manufacturers to harness the full potential of advanced technologies.
Ranging from real-time data collection and analysis from sensors, machines, and production lines, allowing informed decisions to be made quickly, to continuous monitoring and analysis of production data to enhance quality control, as well as the optimisation of manufacturing processes through the analysis of data trends and patterns to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. To read more about the connected worker, click here.
We will also look at how some of the latest wave of data-related technologies, such as AI-driven automation and connected worker initiatives, are impacting the industry and radically changing the manufacturing landscape.
To learn more about Epicor and how we work with our manufacturing customers across the globe, please visit our website.
For more articles like this, visit our Industrial Data & AI channel.
