Finding Big Data Opportunities in Industrial Automation

Here we are in the world of Big Data and all of its possibilities. Just look at all the data we have available to us: production, maintenance, distribution, personnel, finances – real-time, historical and predictive. There is more data being collected more quickly and from more sources than ever before. We are swimming in it.

So, now what? Now that we’ve gathered all of this data, what does it mean to us? Personally, having reams of integers, floats, strings and timestamps in my hands doesn’t make me feel any smarter. As the old adage goes: Data is not information. Data without context offers no insight. Data without structure reveals no opportunities. How do we get from data to information? How do we get from information to knowledge? And how do we get from knowledge to action?