Advanced analytics are considered critical for success in manufacturing and more important than they were three years ago, say three-quarters of 1,300 surveyed manufacturing executives. But only a few companies can capture the full value that data and analytics can unlock to help address their most pressing challenges.
According to the findings in a white paper, “Data Excellence: Transforming Manufacturing and Supply Systems,” from The World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group, less than 20% of surveyed participants prioritize analytics to promote either short-term cost reductions or longer-term structural cost improvements. Only 39% have managed to scale data-driven use cases beyond the production process of a single product to achieve a clearly positive business case.
“Manufacturing is on the verge of a data-driven revolution,” said Daniel Küpper, BCG managing director and partner and report co-author. “But many companies have become disillusioned because they lack the technological backbone required to effectively scale data and analytics applications. Establishing these prerequisites will be critical to success in a post-pandemic world.”
With insights from more than 40 manufacturing organizations and leading academics and public-sector representatives, the report outlines six priorities to capture value from data and analytics in manufacturing:
- Define a data-to-value strategy and roadmap
- Incent internal and external ecosystem partners
- Build capability to capture and use data
- Implement an open platform to unlock
data silos - Enable connectivity for low-latency, high-bandwidth data flows
- Ensure data security and privacy
“These findings will help accelerate our journey to support companies in devising a path forward to reach the next level of data-based manufacturing excellence; build trust among manufacturers, suppliers, and customers; and unlock new value through the development of new data-driven ecosystems,” said Francisco Betti, head of shaping the future of advanced manufacturing and production at the World Economic Forum.
Pragmatic Take: Data and analytics support businesses in every industry, and it’s in companies’ best interests to gain an understanding of how they can apply data in their own organizations.
