It’s no secret that data being generated by sensors embedded in equipment has opened up a new world of possibilities in manufacturing. Advancements in storage, bandwidth, processing power and algorithms enable us to mine data quicker than ever. With some Global 1000 manufacturers already realizing $1 billion of revenue from telemetry, you might think all of the pieces are in place to carry out the digital industrial revolution.
However, the reality is that telemetry alone can only deliver a fraction of the possible predictive maintenance capability and breakthrough innovation. To perform meaningful advanced analytics, manufacturing engineers need a complete set of data, and sensors only provide one piece of the puzzle.
Telemetry data is undeniably an essential ingredient, but to truly mine its value it needs to be compared to other equally important very large unstructured data sets—namely the original equipment’s geometry, schematics and simulations. If these three data sets could be viewed together, the telemetry data generated on the test bench would potentially validate original designs or illustrate their flaws. Likewise, simulations of how parts behave under certain loads or conditions also inform the manufacturing process when examined against telemetry. Over time, engineers can continually refine designs based on telemetry readings from the test lab and the field.
Unfortunately, today’s IT infrastructure prevents the people that need these files from accessing them. From the time these files get created, engineers have a hard time getting them out of the storage buckets and silos in which they were initially placed. Moreover, the IT department eventually moves them around the enterprise as part of periodic hardware and software refresh initiatives. Thus, a simulation or drawing created in these early stages of the product lifecycle can be effectively lost by the time equipment is in the test lab and out in the field—five years could elapse between the completion of an initial drawing and the first prototype’s arrival on the test bench. By that time, engineers have to go to great lengths to track mission-critical files.
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