How Data Governance Can Help Steer Manufacturing Towards Better Operations
Key Takeaways
- Data Governance is crucial for manufacturers.
- Data is unmanageable and dangerous without Data Governance.
- Data Governance is crucial to drive manufacturers toward continual improvement.
- Core BTS offers tailored data governance solutions for manufacturers.
Data drives technological and industrial advancement. Due to its value, data is becoming an increasingly important commodity. We are experiencing an overwhelming surge of information, akin to a data deluge. While we can’t stop this flood, we can manage and filter it through effective data governance. In this discussion, we will explore how the power of data governance can help your manufacturing operations grow, improve, and thrive.
The Data Deluge: Challenges in Manufacturing
Data continues to grow exponentially in the manufacturing sector, driven by the core elements of Industry 4.0 (the Fourth Industrial Revolution). These components include:
- Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Machine Learning (ML)
- Big Data Analytics
- Continued integration of connected machines.
- Increased use of sensors and automation.
These diverse sources provide data from various perspectives for manufacturers. However, data also presents several challenges, including:
- Costs vs. Return on Investment (ROI)
- Cybersecurity concerns.
- Difficulty complying with industry regulations.
- Privacy concerns.
- Safety concerns.
- Problems with data quality
Data Quality Issues
While these various data streams offer valuable insights into markets, they also pose the risk of generating inaccurate, inconsistent, or duplicated information. Data quality issues can be costly, leading to ineffective operations and diminishing ROI. Without proper data governance in place, it’s hard to know which data is useful and relevant and which isn’t.
Data Security, Safety, and Privacy Concerns
Another problem with abundant data is the increased risk of security and privacy breaches. The more information you have about your manufacturing processes, the more opportunities malicious actors have to target and attack your operations. They can also obtain data about your employees, impersonate them, and compromise their identity, endangering the safety and integrity of your manufacturing operations. Data governance helps identify and protect sensitive data more effectively.
Difficulty with Complying with Industry Regulations
The abundance of data presents a significant challenge for the manufacturing sector. Inadequate training on handling and protecting data can lead to violations of industry-specific regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). HIPAA is particularly relevant for manufacturers of medical devices and those handling employee health information, as well as for companies acting as business associates to healthcare providers. Without adequate data governance, ensuring compliance with these regulations is difficult, potentially resulting in legal and other serious consequences.
Building a Strong Foundation: The Value of Data Governance
So, what is data governance, and how does it apply to manufacturers? Data governance is the process used to manage the availability, usability, quality, and security of data in your organization. Data governance core’s principles for manufacturers are:
- Data Quality
- Data Integrity
- Data Analytics
- Data Security
- Data Accessibility
- Data Privacy
- Data Standardization
- Compliance and Governance
- Data Lineage
- Continuous Improvement
Ensuring Data Quality Management
Data governance allows you to control the data quality through policies, processes, and procedures. You can also grade its integrity based on the criteria in place. You will then be able to ensure that you get consistent, accurate, and complete data. Under data governance, you can perform meaningful data analytics to help your organization make the best decisions for its manufacturing.
Implementing Data Security and Access Control
Implementing robust data governance policies allows you to safeguard sensitive information effectively. These policies enable you to establish precise access controls, granting, denying, or restricting data access based on an individual’s organizational role. For instance, you can limit the data accessible to a contractor or temporary worker while providing broader access to a plant manager or HR personnel. This targeted approach ensures that sensitive data remains protected while maintaining operational efficiency.
Guarding Privacy and Complying with Regulations
Recognizing the significance of privacy regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is pivotal in establishing a robust data governance framework. Addressing specific privacy concerns allows for the protection of personal data, trade secrets, and proprietary information. For example, implementing encryption protocols for sensitive data ensures compliance with HIPAA’s requirements for safeguarding patient information. Organizations can navigate regulatory landscapes effectively by prioritizing privacy protection through data governance measures, mitigating the risk of legal entanglements and reputational damage.
Tracking Data Lineage and Accountability
Data governance can help you track the source of data, how it’s been transformed, and how it’s been used. Tracking data lineage helps you know whether you should use certain data to direct your manufacturing. You can also establish acceptable formats to transform raw data. Data governance can increase accountability by showing where the data was sourced or if the transformed data format is acceptable. Data governance provides the needed sieve to filter data.
By laying a firm foundation through data governance, you will continually improve your manufacturing operations to take better steps.
Unlocking Insights, Mitigating Risks: The Benefits of Data Governance
The benefit of having data governance guiding your manufacturing isn’t ethereal. The benefits are tangible, such as:
- Improved Decision Making Establishing clear pathways for data examination empowers manufacturing operations to make informed decisions. These decisions are rooted in reliable data analysis rather than guesswork or intuition. Robust data governance ensures that every department has access to uniform data sets, leading to optimal decision-making.
- Enhanced Collaboration With robust data governance, every department gains access to uniform data sets, fostering collaboration across the organization. This enhanced teamwork and rigorous data analysis drive manufacturing operations toward optimal decision-making.
- Competitive Advantage Making the best decisions based on good data increases competitive advantage by identifying areas where competitors lack expertise and where the company can excel. Enhanced teamwork and rigorous data analysis also strengthen competitiveness.
- Cost Savings Data governance allows better sifting through data to help operations save money. It effectively reduces waste and identifies ways to improve manufacturing efficiency.
- Enhanced Operational Efficiency Data governance helps in increasing operational efficiency. By defining and analyzing data effectively, it becomes easier to improve processes and reduce waste in manufacturing operations.
- Risk Management Proper data governance enables effective risk management. It helps identify and mitigate threats such as cyberattacks or data breaches. Additionally, it allows for proactive risk management through predictive maintenance to avoid equipment failure and prevent potential bottlenecks in production.
- Regulatory Compliance Data governance serves as a cornerstone for regulatory compliance, enabling precise classification and protection of sensitive data. It supports well-defined access controls, robust monitoring mechanisms, comprehensive training programs, routine audits, and swift incident response in case of data breaches.
- Innovation and Product Development Data governance steers manufacturing towards innovation and better product development. By methodically analyzing data, manufacturers can effectively examine market trends and customer feedback, leading to improved product designs.
- Improved Supply Chain Management Data governance helps identify and close gaps in supply chains. It provides insights into customer preferences, needs, and feedback, enabling better service to customers.
- Improve Customer Experiences With data governance, manufacturers can better understand and serve their customers by analyzing their preferences, needs, and feedback, leading to enhanced customer experiences.
Core BTS: Your Partner in Data Governance Success
Core BTS is the leader in providing data governance solutions for manufacturers. It understands how data is crucial for smarter decision-making, gaining competitive advantage, and innovation. Core BTS offers tailored solutions for your manufacturing data with guided and unguided analytics to address your organization’s needs.
The Road to Data-Driven Transformation
Core BTS can help your manufacturing excel in continuous improvement and innovation by structuring the data governance you need. If you need help creating and implementing data governance, contact Core BTS.
