Input Stories

At the NAM, we’re examining some of the top trends that are shaping manufacturing this year and offering the resources you need to take action. Today, we’re taking a look at the importance of data—and the work the industry will do to leverage data’s power. 

The trend: Manufacturers are increasingly aware that success in the digital era depends on data—and by mastering that data, they can increase efficiency, cost-effectiveness and productivity.

The value: Data can help manufacturers improve their operations and find new ways to organize their factories and plants. As operations become more connected electronically, there will be more and more opportunities for data collection, which will lead to more ways to identify and solve problems, increase efficiency and cut costs.

The action: To take advantage of data’s many benefits, more manufacturers will need to build data infrastructure, develop corporate strategies for data governance and ensure the quality and validity of their data.

• Building infrastructure: Manufacturers will need to focus on delivering scalable, flexible data infrastructure that offers the kind of storage and computational power they need to handle enormous sets of data and complex AI models. Transitioning to the cloud will be important, but finding the right cloud configuration will be key.
• Establishing a governance strategy: Data isn’t worth much if it can’t be used or trusted. That’s why it’s essential for manufacturers to set up comprehensive policies and procedures to ensure data can be monitored, accessed and standardized across all systems and processes.
• Ensuring data quality and validity: Data analysis and AI performance won’t be effective if the underlying data is poor quality or wrong. Manufacturers will need to focus on ensuring that the data they collect is recorded clearly and correctly so it can be used successfully.

Expert insight: According to NTT Chief Data and AI Officer Andrew Wells, manufacturers should focus on these three elements: a flexible and scalable data infrastructure; a strong data governance strategy; and data quality and validity.

• “Getting all data in tiptop shape can be a daunting task,” said Wells. “By focusing on these best practices and taking an incremental approach to progress, manufacturers will be able to use their data, and the powerful new AI tools that harness it, to its full potential. The resulting operational capabilities—predictive maintenance, improved quality control and supply chain optimization—can deliver better efficiency, lower costs and improve market competitiveness.”

Resources for you: Want to dive deeper? Check out some additional resources from the NAM.

• Discover what peers are doing and gain new ideas from NAM SmartBrief—a quick daily summary of relevant articles around new technologies, data, sustainability, supply chain, workforce and more.
• Explore a report from the Manufacturing Leadership Council—the NAM’s digital transformation division—that discusses the gap between data strategy and overall business strategy.
• Learn about where manufacturers need to improve and how they plan to do it in a report that finds 70% of manufacturers still enter data manually.