Recently, I was thrilled to receive an invitation to participate on a panel at the recent inaugural SpeedNews AeroAuto Conference. For the past five years, SpeedNews focused its conference solely on the aerospace industry. This year, organizers brought professionals from the automotive industry together with leaders from the aerospace industry to share best practices.

The panel I was invited to participate in was entitled: “Manufacturing Productivity: The Growing Role of Big Data.” In preparation, I spoke with many Plex customers from small to large to get their opinions on how big data in manufacturing is affecting their business. Surprisingly, none are worrying about traditional big data use cases of analyzing ginormous data sets looking for hidden patterns. Instead, they all have active strategies to make better use of the core data that they collect everyday using the Plex Intelliplex Analytic Applications.

One of the assumptions going into the big data era is that manufacturers have always collected a lot of data, but analysts claim that less than one percent is ever used—or even looked at. Plex customers instead are realizing the value they can glean from the other 99 percent of their data. Despite the four Vs of big data (Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity), there are only three Vs that matter to manufacturers: Value, Value, and Value. Domain-specific applications that provide access to and analysis of their many data streams in easy-to-consume dashboards (representing yet another V for Visualization) delivers real value from operational data. With this data, they can make faster, more-informed decisions about their operations.

To take a deeper dive into how big data is used by industry leaders, download the white paper: What Does Big Data Mean for Manufacturers?