As manufacturers transition to smarter factories with interconnected machines, the data generated by these systems can offer a multitude of benefits: enhanced efficiency, increased productivity, informed decision-making, value creation, and ultimately, improved competitiveness. However, becoming a data-driven business comes with significant challenges. The NAM’s Manufacturing Leadership Council’s “Manufacturing in 2030 Survey: Data Mastery – A Key to Industrial Competitiveness” highlights the successes and opportunities for manufacturers transforming their operations with data.
Security and Privacy Concerns:
As factories become more connected, cybersecurity becomes increasingly critical. Survey respondents confirmed that both data security and data privacy are essential.
- Over 90% of respondents have a formal or partial policy on data security and privacy.
- Approximately two-thirds of manufacturers have a formal or partial policy on data quality.
- More than 60% have a corporate-wide plan, strategy, or guidelines for data management, but only 15% follow the plan entirely.
How Data is Used:
As manufacturers progress along their Industry 4.0 journey, data is becoming their lifeblood, driving insights and decision-making. Yet, the survey revealed a gap between available data sources and their utilization, indicating an area for improvement as the industry looks toward the future.
- Spreadsheets Still Dominate: 70% of manufacturers manually enter data into spreadsheets, and 68% still use them for data analysis.
- 44% of manufacturing leaders report that the amount of data they collect has doubled over the past two years, and they anticipate it will triple by 2030.
- While nearly 60% of manufacturers use data to understand and optimize projects, there is a shift toward using data to make predictions about operational performance, including machine performance, in the next decade.
Business Impact:
Most manufacturers leverage data to find ways to save money or promote business growth. However, less than half have a good understanding of the dollar value of their data.
- Only about 25% of manufacturers have high confidence that the right data is being collected.
- Most manufacturers have only moderate confidence in their analytic capabilities.
- Top challenges include data from different systems or formats (53%), data that is not easy to access (28%), and lack of skills to analyze data effectively (28%).
- Despite these challenges, 95% of manufacturers say data leads to faster and/or higher-quality decision-making.
The Bottom Line:
An overwhelming majority of manufacturers (86%) believe that the effective use of manufacturing data will be “essential” to their competitiveness. To realize data’s potential, manufacturers must figure out how to organize and analyze their data effectively, ensure that their data is trustworthy, and align their business strategy closely with their data strategy.