What are the Benefits of Working with Industrial Big Data?
What are the Benefits of Working with Industrial Big Data?
Have you heard of industrial big data? What about digital material handling and manufacturing platforms? These days, businesses can connect with one another to greater effect than ever, or simply leverage their existing data in new ways to figure out how to work smarter and more productively.
In fact, every industry within the global economy stands to benefit from the advent of industrial-scale data-gathering technologies and techniques. But it’s a common belief that the barrier of entry is too high, or that the apparatus or expertise required is too cost-prohibitive for the average company. Thanks to new tools and even add-ons for existing ones, industrial big data is more accessible to small and mid-sized businesses than ever.
Here’s why you should consider the benefits.
What is Industrial Big Data?
Industrial big data refers to all of the process dashboards your employees rely on to track production. It’s also the information you gather from your customers to gauge interest and forecast demand, the connected production machinery on your shop or warehouse floor, the cloud-based asset tracking you use with your vendors and partners and the analytics suites you use to peel back the layers of your operation and help the moving pieces work together more fluidly.
A truly “integrated” big data platform is one that works alongside a company’s existing infrastructure and equipment as much as possible and is compatible with a wide variety of business software and cybersecurity tools. We’ll see in a moment that some newer technologies, such as clean energy generation equipment, are being conceived with some of this functionality already in mind and built right in.
But in some cases, the small or medium business will find itself turning to aftermarket hardware add-ons to gather information from the machines and processes they already use. In other instances, leveraging industrial data in a supply chain with many partners means bringing data into the cloud so each party has access to information that can help with decision-making.
In any case, you can think of industrial big data as a kind of “industrial networking.” Not just between the several interconnected pieces of your own business, but also between actors in the larger business landscape and global supply chain. It offers the means to carry out our work and use our resources, both in-house and globally, more effectively and less wastefully.
Case Studies Prove the Potential of Industrial Big Data
It doesn’t really matter what you manufacture, build, move, study, ship or export. There’s probably a case study out there that demonstrates the applicability of big data systems. Here are a few to consider.
Meeting modern energy demands means harnessing cutting-edge generation equipment and operating it as efficiently as possible. Before big data, blackouts were difficult to control after they began. Not so much with the “smart grid” now taking shape.
In our first example, big data provides a 200-turbine wind-based power generation plant with true data visibility to help maximize uptime and anticipate — and keep costs down on — maintenance and repair needs.
Each of the turbines in this massive complex is equipped with multiple sensors to gather information about the environment, as well as the turbines’ onboard machinery. This connected equipment sends data back to base and provides multiple layers of analysis for engineers to make use of. Most of it happens in real-time, and some decision-making doesn’t even require human intervention.
Based on the wind farm’s current output and forecasted future demand, for example, each turbine can determine on its own whether to continue storing power in batteries or to let generated power back into the grid and transmission lines. The point is to remove the human element from decisions that don’t require it. In this case, gathering industrial data helps the entire power grid function more intelligently and cost-effectively for consumers and generation companies alike and avoid the peaks and valleys of uncertain demand throughout the year.
Doing this means a better experience for customers and more consistent operation — and less wear and tear — on industrial equipment, as well as a more complete picture of parts and maintenance needs over time. It helps prioritize tasks and draw up schedules with the correct personnel on standby.
Here’s another example.
Many manufacturing processes begin with cutting or tooling large pieces of raw material into smaller workpieces. Often, this prepared material is moved to another location or even an outside partner for the next step or finishing.
But think about how far “upstream” the first stages of material handling are. Mis-cuts and even small lapses in quality at this stage can severely compromise quality and leave partners downstream with a product that doesn’t meet their needs or quality standards. That likely means it doesn’t meet your criteria, either.
So, where does industrial data enter the mix? At several locations, potentially. Smart manufacturing equipment these days can monitor the “health” and remaining effectiveness of several onboard elements, including the remaining lifespan of drill bits or cutting heads. Dull tooling equipment or machines that are about to fail can bring an entire multiple-partner enterprise to a standstill while the required fixes or equipment swaps are being made.
How is Big Data Gathered in Industry? Find a Solution that Suits You.
No matter your industry, you’re likely to be wondering how to gather some of this data. In the above example of connected manufacturing equipment, companies can look to sensor and transmitter add-ons from third parties to retrofit existing production equipment and add “smart” capabilities to bring it into your network and have it add value to your data-gathering apparatus.
Quite a bit of modern manufacturing equipment is already equipped with programmable logic controllers that gather information about tool temperature, sound emissions, vibrations, cutting speed, time elapsed in various processes and more. But when you invest in connected technologies or partner with a smart equipment manufacturer, you lift these valuable data points out of the machine’s onboard hardware and put it to work in ways that benefit and inform your other processes.
It’s not about merely “adding Wi-Fi” to one of your machines. It’s about building a smarter company infrastructure that blurs the line between the digital and the mechanical. When your smartphone’s GPS reroutes you on your drive home from work, it’s using big data. Other drivers have their phones, too, which means we’re all “comparing notes” in real-time — in the background — and all reacting to that nasty crash down the parkway by making a strategic detour.
Industrial equipment can work the same way. Connecting it and helping it work more seamlessly with the rest of your operation — and your business partners — isn’t just a good idea. It’s Industry 4.0 come at last.
