Written by Infraspeak team!

We live in the era of Industry 4.0, which is the revolutionary digitalization of manufacturing that involves Big Data, which is the concept that studies all the data gathered and managed. And managing and generating data are a crucial part of this process in all companies. 

Why generate data?

A well-run, efficient and productive company relies on data to achieve greater goals. But why? Well, there are a lot of perks in doing that:

• Decision-making

One of the toughest and more stressful tasks leans on decision-making. Insecurities creep in and the human mind gets in the way. And how to avoid this situation? Analytics and data.

By generating data, decision-making almost becomes a mathematical and analytical question. Depending on the industry, data can reveal essential intel regarding your own company, the field in general or global traits that can boost its efficiency. Harnessing data can, for example, help you find and retain new clients, improve your customer experience, predict new trends, enhance your marketing strategy and even track social media and its potential.

• Problem-solving

Besides relieving you of making hard decisions on your own, it also helps you with solving problems. No company in the world doesn’t have months of failure, whether on marketing campaigns, on gathering clients or low sales. So, with that in mind, collecting data will greatly improve upon those failures. This data management and asset management process enable companies to review their breakdowns, track all the operations and, in the end, understand what went wrong and how to improve.

• Performance-check

Reviewing and tracking the data generated not only serves the purpose of solving problems but also helps greatly at managing the performance of everything running in your company. With IoT, you can control everything that happens in your company from marketing campaigns to customer support to even your team. You’ll always be able to be sure if your company is being well-run.

• Cost and time saving

Since it allows to check the performance on every aspect of your company, why not use that to improve upon your business processes? Optimization is a watchword on every well-run company and generating data will help you achieve that level of competence. Inefficiencies can cost your company a lot of money and time.

One of the greatest examples of it is the advertisement: while using data you will be able to see how the market for marketing is working, generate leads that will offer the best ROI and avoid bad decisions that will reduce wasted money and time.

• Perspective on the market

Awareness and perspective on how the market works are also essential and without data, you are blind-folded looking at it or looking for a needle in a haystack. Data can be considered your GPS in a maze. With it, you can analyze your clients, what their preferences are, which trends are gaining ground and check if your marketing strategy is working. All in all, data pinpoint to you the way for optimal processes.

But generating data by itself can lead you to get lost in the midst of it all. There are ways to manage all the data collected which will make the job so much easier.

Why manage data?

Data management and asset management are essential tools for optimal processes. Those can be achievable by using a CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) software, for instance. As mentioned before, using Big Data can lead to a confusing journey if you don’t manage it by making operations simple and effective. Since we are consuming data at an astonishing rate it is wise to use Data Management software for a complete and clear overview of your company. The use of analytics will help you manage and store the right data for better and efficient decisions which will result in optimizing your Big Data.

With this approach, your team will flourish because they’ll have all the intel to deliver proficient work in less time.

How to master data generation and management?

First of all, what is master data?

There are all types of data stored in companies, being master data one of them. By definition, it is considered the core of it all, the main and most important data generated by your company. Why? Because master data covers all the critical concepts on which the enterprise is conducted. There are 4 domains inside your master data:

• Customers

Which comprises of your customers, employees and even the sub-domain of your salesperson.

• Products

Which embedders your products and storage.

• Locations

Encompasses your office location and other geographical sub-domains.

• Other

On which you will encounter data such as contracts and licenses.

Now, its definition is not that conclusive which means that master data management is a tricky concept. Even with the definition written above, it’s still a concept that lacks certainty. To consider an entity as master data, it is recommendable to follow certain criteria.

• Size — the greater the number of elements in such entity, the greater the likelihood of it being considered master data.
• Longevity– master data is considered less volatile than transitional data which means that its lifespan is also higher.
• Complexity– since it’s data that requires management, master data tends to be complex.
• Value– since master data is considered the most valuable, it is also acknowledgeable that it would embed the most value of it all for the company.

There are some common practices nowadays that are used to generate data. Technologies such as QR Codes and NFC Tags can help greatly in gathering information through smart technology, and also help in facilitating and make things simpler.

Secondly, to manage all the absurd quantity of generated data by the IoT sensors, we need some management help, otherwise, it would be a complete mess, lacking efficiency.

With this in mind, CMMS software is the way to attain optimization and guidance. It will help you manage your company by reducing downtime, controlling costs, save time, increase efficiency and even improve safety and health.

How data can improve your team’s and assets’ performance?

Now that we dove on the importance of managing and generating data, let’s get to the benefits of its application on your team’s and assets’ performance.

Besides helping you in improving your optimization, efficiency and profits, IoT sensors, Big Data and all the Industry 4.0 will make your team and assets way more productive.

One of the most underrated and important aspects of your team is their morale. A team that lacks motivation will undoubtedly fail at being productive and successful which will cost you great opportunities at also succeeding. So, for your business to grow, it’s essential that your employees are rather happy and motivated.

Surprisingly, Big data and IoT technology can boost your team’s morale. How? Data analytics can showcase your successes by simply tracking your work. By doing that, your team will know for sure that they are doing a great job, which obviously will make them happier.

We all love getting praised, and doing that will help your team’s success. By using analytics, you will be able to enhance your employee’s strength as they complete tasks or show great value for the company.

Besides your team’s morale, an increase in productivity will help your team and assets in achieving the proposed goals. Who doesn’t hate bureaucracy? With this Industry 4.0 and Big data, all of that is taken care of. No more spreadsheets nor time-costing tasks.

Also, by being able to track and check all the results from their work will enable them to avoid mistakes, they will improve and be guided toward better results and enhanced productivity.

For more info about technology and data, check Infraspeak’s blog, which hopefully will give you great insight into this world of Industry 4.0 and Big Data.