Factories are becoming smarter through the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML), and manufacturers looking to reap the benefits of these Smart Manufacturing technologies must approach the digital transformation at its starting point — the collection of data.
Read on for more about why data capture is the first, crucial step towards becoming a Smart Manufacturer.
Data Capture: Beginning The Path To Smart Manufacturing
The most urgent requirement for organizations looking to become Smart Manufacturing enterprises is to collect data — all data, from anywhere.
Manufacturers must take stock of what data they have, gathering it from a variety of sources, from IoT and IIoT devices, to HMIs, PLCs, ERPs, their CRM, and even manual data captures. It’s also important to begin conversations with suppliers and other partners in the manufacturing process to figure out what data they have as well.
When it comes to data, it isn’t just about quantity, but quality. The human-centric manual data capture process can provide some important data, but can also be labor-intensive and mistake-prone. The automated capture of data increases realtime accuracy, while saving time and money.
And the more up-to-date, precise, and better quality data that is collected, the easier it is for manufacturers to put that data to use, integrating Smart Manufacturing technologies like AI and ML into manufacturing operations that can then extract actionable insights.
Indeed, quality data capture is the foundation of a Smart Manufacturing data-driven process — one that can enhance operational efficiency by up to 60%.
With successful data collection, manufacturers have started on the path to reaping the many benefits that can be mined from insight into that data:
- high visibility into operations
- streamlined supply chain management
- enhanced equipment performance and maintenance
- superior worker and product safety
- advanced traceability
- reduced waste
- optimized productivity and profitability
- ultimately, greater customer satisfaction and brand trust
Better insight into data leads to better decisions. But it all starts with data capture.
In order to thrive in an increasingly competitive and unpredictable manufacturing landscape, manufacturers would do well to start by ensuring they have implemented the best tools and processes for collecting comprehensive, accurate data from across their manufacturing operations — the kind of quality data that can then be leveraged to benefit their organization in a meaningful way, driving success as a Smart Manufacturer.
It's Time To Transform Your Data
The path to Smart Manufacturing is different for every enterprise, but the direction is the same –– towards modern, optimized manufacturing.
ThinkIQ supplies Transformational Intelligence, taking manufacturing businesses through the 5 stages needed to reach fully automated Smart Manufacturing status — and step one is the crucial process of capturing data. Once data is collected though, it is almost certainly still on a wide variety of screens and in different data silos and isn’t very useable.
That’s why ThinkIQ has designed the next 4 stages to offer increasingly valuable improvements to manufacturers, whether by optimizing supply chain or asset traceability, or by supplying predictive analytics. Taken together, they create a true transformation to Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing.
ThinkIQ technology goes far beyond analytics to reveal how every element of your supply and manufacturing chain may impact the final product, delivering actionable insights, and helping you turn overwhelming data streams into enhanced safety, efficiency, quality, yield, and improved key metrics.
ThinkIQ takes you from gathering data, to an intelligent, wholly transformed manufacturing process.
Turn your data into actionable insights — Reach out to a ThinkIQ expert to take the first step toward a Smart Manufacturing transformation for your manufacturing enterprise. We also have a new selection guide eBook, “An Evaluation Guide to Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing,” to help get you started. Download your copy today.
