How Data Analytics is enabling Industry 4.0
Also known as the 4th industrial revolution and smart manufacturing, Industry 4.0 is all about integrating smart technology into industrial manufacturing processes for greater efficiency, quality, and better outcomes. A McKinsey survey on Industry 4.0 reported that two-thirds of manufacturing companies view it as their top priority. Additionally, a research study conducted by McKinsey and the World Economic Forum found that manufacturing companies using Industry 4.0 would generate $3.7 trillion of market value by 2025.
Industry 4.0 is rapidly changing how manufacturers are producing, improving, and distributing their products. Increasingly, we find manufacturers integrating technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet-of-Things (IoT), and data analytics into their operations and production facilities.
Through this blog, we shall look at how Industry 4.0 (or smart manufacturing) is being driven by data.
What is Smart Manufacturing?
Today, we live in the age of smart manufacturing. Essentially, smart manufacturing is the application of the latest technologies and solutions to the manufacturing ecosystem. Modern-day manufacturing depends a lot on data-centric technologies like IoT that are connecting various devices within a manufacturing facility. Big Data is just one part of smart manufacturing. What is more important is the application of AI and Big Data Analytics to derive deeper actionable insights from the collected data.
It is not just valuable insights that manufacturers are extracting from data, but also tangible results from it. For instance, Harley-Davidson’s “Smart factory” model reduced its operating costs by $200 million and cut down its production schedule from 21 days to just 6 hours.
Next, let us look at the role of data analytics in the growing field of smart manufacturing.
Data Analytics in Industry 4.0
According to McKinsey, data analytics and intelligence are among the four foundational pillars of Industry 4.0. As an example, the IBM Watson cognitive system can provide answers to complex questions based on insights synthesized from massive volumes of unstructured data to drive smart manufacturing decisions.
IBM Planning Analytics is driving the new age of manufacturing by providing answers to business problems like “why a manufacturing facility is not able to meet its optimum production capacity?” On its part, advanced analytics is touching the manufacturing sector in different areas including:
- Achieving and ensuring product growth
- Optimizing the supply chain operations
- Controlling sales and marketing budgets
- Reducing warranty costs
- Preventing equipment breakdowns through predictive maintenance.
For instance, by implementing a smart factory solution using predictive analytics, Intel was able to reduce reaction time to any unscheduled downtime or malfunction from 4 hours to just 30 seconds. The resulting cost savings- $100 million. Another India-based case study is that of automobile manufacturer, Mahindra & Mahindra who were able to automate and streamline their automobile development and engineering process using IBM’s connected engineering solutions.
Next, let us look at the benefits of data analytics in the manufacturing industry.
Benefits of Data Analytics in Smart Manufacturing
In the post-COVID era, data analytics can enable smart manufacturers to be competitive and equip themselves with the latest data on various business functions. Pankaj Dubey of Polaris India talks about the use of “data analytics to capture, cleanse, and analyze machine data to reveal insights.”
Here are 5 major business benefits of data analytics in smart manufacturing:
1. Optimizing the decision-making process
Data analytics in manufacturing is now improving decision-making and resolving daily operational issues. For instance, advanced analytics is providing more visibility into manufacturing operations, thus enabling efficient operations and better pricing decisions.
2. Reducing operational costs
Data analytics enable manufacturing firms to move from information gathering to process optimization, thus increasing their business value. Through operational reports, business executives have more visibility (or “what’s happening”) into their business functions.
Predictive analytics can be leveraged to discover:
– Why does a problem keep occurring?
– What is likely to happen?
– How to act upon a business insight?
With easy-to-read visualization reports, manufacturing units are now able to spend their business funds efficiently and eliminate high-cost areas, thus reducing their operational costs.
3. Integrating business processes
In today’s complex industrial environment, manufacturing firms have complex processes – including supply chains and vendors. Essentially, data analytics now allows manufacturers to zoom into every function including the production, supply chain, and inventory. Using AI-powered sensors embedded into manufactured products, manufacturers are using data technologies to monitor their product health across all processes. This is turning out to be critical for supply chain efficiency and predictive maintenance. For instance, cognitive manufacturing is enabling companies to focus on product quality through its entire development cycle from design to production and warranty.
4. Enabling cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is of prime importance for manufacturing companies in this age of increasing cyberattacks and phishing scams. With more interconnectivity, industrial control systems are becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks. When it comes to operational technology (OT), 74% of industrial organizations do not have a proper risk assessment plan–while 81% do not have any OT-specific.
To prevent the misuse of data, a security solution based on analytics can offer advantages like:
– Security layers for every data object
– Integrated data governance and management
– Data insights that are traceable and auditable
Conclusion
In summary, data-driven smart manufacturing is now becoming a necessity as the manufacturing sector looks to make sense of its massive data volumes. Industry 4.0 is ushering in the age of IoT and AI technologies to boost manufacturing productivity.
With the IBM Watson platform, manufacturing companies are optimizing their production, improving their employee productivity, and mitigating any disruptions in their supply chains.
As a trusted IBM business partner, Veracitiz has helped manufacturers uncover deep insights using advanced analytics. Think we can be of assistance to your manufacturing facility? Let us get in touch.