{"id":283035,"date":"2019-10-25T09:30:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T09:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/?p=283035"},"modified":"2019-10-23T21:40:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T21:40:40","slug":"big-data-challenges-of-industry-4-0-worth-considering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/big-data-challenges-of-industry-4-0-worth-considering\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Data Challenges Of Industry 4.0 Worth Considering"},"content":{"rendered":"

The goal of Industry 4.0 is deceptively simple: maximize efficiency and profits<\/a>, operate a leaner organization and, wherever possible, introduce automation in areas that humans find dangerous or repetitive. Accomplishing each of these feats requires buy-in of the monetary and mental varieties. It also requires access to meaningful operational information. In other words, it needs big data. Any company that wants to reap the rewards of Industry 4.0 will need to tackle the following big data challenges first. <\/p>\n

1. Siloed Data<\/h2>\n

A lack of cross-platform, inter-departmental data sharing is probably the biggest challenge in Industry 4.0. Company data that exists in a \u201csilo\u201d is data might benefit one party or department, but often otherwise goes to waste. True business intelligence isn\u2019t possible if every department within an organization can\u2019t share data and insights with one another. For an example of what you might be leaving behind, consider the example of a semiconductor manufacturer who, in a manner of speaking, closed a \u201cdata loop\u201d by sending back data from the testing phase of production and seamlessly \u201cfolding it in\u201d to earlier stages of development. This resulted in the company identifying faulty products earlier<\/a> and improving their quality across the board. <\/p>\n

2. Data System Redundancy<\/h2>\n

Another problem closely related to siloed data is data system redundancy. Your company probably uses an enterprise resource planning system to keep tabs on every part of your business, including your customers and vendors. But what if you had more than one ERP \u2014 say, one for every facility or sales territory \u2014 to transfer data between? What if you had 30? That\u2019s what happened with Anheuser-Busch InBev as they consolidated their subsidiaries to become one of the biggest names in brewing. At one point in time, the company had 27<\/a> different enterprise planning systems. Now, they\u2019re transitioning to just one to take better advantage of data analysis, reporting and other digital tools that benefit from a central, ordered repository of enterprise data. <\/p>\n

3. Talent Shortages<\/h2>\n

Employers everywhere are scrambling to bring data specialists aboard to help build and maintain databases<\/a> and then gather (or build tools to gather) insights from all of the organized data. This creates a problem \u2014 every company is ramping up their staffing at the same time. As we speak, U.S. companies need more than 150,000 data scientists<\/a>. That\u2019s according to a LinkedIn survey of American businesses. This isn\u2019t over a couple of years \u2014 these positions are available right now. A secondary challenge closely related to staffing involves the skills you single out in the job candidates you bring in for interviews. There are hard skills involved, like mathematics and software development. Those are the non-negotiables. But there are lots of soft skills that good data scientists need, too, like the ability to communicate well and tell others about the stories they see in data. <\/p>\n

4. Security and Data Access<\/h2>\n

Much has been written about the security vulnerabilities of the Internet of Things<\/a>, including industrial machine control devices. And much more has yet to be written. Across the commercial landscape, business decision-makers remain hesitant to invest in the IoT and other digital transformative technologies because they worry over the security gaps these assets introduce. In fact, some 77% of companies<\/a> surveyed by Forrester and ForeScout say they now face \u201csignificant\u201d security challenges they didn\u2019t have to worry about before. But what are these challenges, and how can companies answer them in kind? Here\u2019s a look: <\/p>\n