Big Data

By some estimates, 90% of the recorded data in the world was created within the past two years.  That avalanche of information has affected every facet of business and industry, making it one of today's most critical technology trends (and buzzwords): Big Data.

Manufacturing is in the middle of this Big Data movement. Every machine tool turn, every kilowatt of energy consumed, every shift change or procedural variation results in unfathomable quantities of raw data -- information that until recently has been locked in the machines, vaulted in historians or piled high on a manager's desk.

Now, with the advance of data mining technologies and the proliferation of powerful analytics software, manufacturers finally have the power to unlock this data. In the process, they are discovering the true wealth of this information, buried inside their financial, operational, and workforce data and are bringing it onto the plant floor to streamline operations like never before.