Why and How to use Big Data in Manufacturing

Don't let precious data go to waste

Big data in manufacturing involves using data from Industry 4.0 sensors to dictate decision-making on the factory floor. With more data from their machines, decision-makers can make educated choices to improve efficiency, cut waste, and prevent breakdowns. This sounds good on paper, but many manufactures have yet to adopt big data due to a lack of awareness of how much money proper implementation can save manufacturers.

Many believe that adopting big data in manufacturing means starting from scratch when in reality, they likely already have an abundance of data they can use to improve their decision-making. According to a senior executive from ABB, at least 80% of factory floor data isn’t utilized.

Why Use Big Data in Manufacturing?

If you’re one of the many manufacturers who are still unsure of how big data analysis can benefit their business, below are a few key takeaways to consider.

Improved Product Design

With supply chains completely uprooted, many manufacturers are beginning to design their products in-house to sell directly to consumers. Unfortunately, product design is a lengthy process. Every failed design requires time, resources, and labor to develop. Fortunately, many have started to blend big data into the product design process. How is this done? By unlocking the potential of that 80% unused data.

Taking data from past production processes, manufacturers can run simulations for products across their development stages. Using machine learning algorithms trained on data from these past productions, these simulations are streamlined and performed much quicker. This means every device iteration can be run in simulations, which means a more meticulously tested, quality product.

Its Usefulness Compounds the Longer You Use It

The wonderful thing about big data is that it uses past data to enhance current practices. As such, the longer you use big data infrastructures to gather data, the more data you have, the more you can train ML and other AI applications to perform critical tasks quicker and more effectively. Thus, data gathering becomes more and more potently effective the longer you use it, meaning you can stand to gain in the short term and then gain even more in a long time.

Reskilling Your Workforce

The skilled labor shortage in manufacturing is only increasing. This has resulted in a renaissance for reskilling the workforce. As business owners start to train employees, they already have to meet unique needs.

By slowly implementing big data in manufacturing practices, you can expose your employees to more innovative tech and industry 4.0 hardware in an approachable way. Odds are you’ll be needing to reskill your workforce regardless. However, starting now may be what puts your business ahead of the curve when the smoke clears.

How to Use Big Data in Manufacturing

Here’s how to use big data in manufacturing in an approachable way that will provide all of the benefits we mentioned earlier.

Educate Your Team on its Benefits

Several manufacturers still belong to the camp of “big data and industry 4.0 is superfluous, and we don’t have the money right now.” Convincing these people, with their very valid reservations, requires educating them on the benefits, the profitability, and, most importantly, the future-proofing of your business caused by big data implementation.

Start Small

Start small by adding sensors to a few devices and preparing a data storing center.

Plan and deploy workstations such as rack-mounted pcs or HMI interfaces to draw in this data and support software/hardware needed to analyze it. Start small and prove the concept of big data in manufacturing has merit before committing 100%.

Target a Specific Issue

So, if you’re starting small, where should you deploy the few sensors you plan on deploying? That depends on you! What’s an issue your floor has been dealing with as of late? Does a specific machine commonly yield a product that doesn’t meet your standards of quality? Does production often slow down during a particular stage?

Consider implementing big data in manufacturing in troubled areas where you can test if these new programs can solve problems and not become another application of IoT wallpaper.

Learning How to Use Big Data in Manufacturing Enhances What You Already Have

Data is something you’re constantly producing, whether you know about it or not. Whether you decide to use this data is up to you. If you don’t want to fall behind in adopting your untapped data, contact an expert from Cybernet today to recommend the hardware required to get you started.