Analytics in Manufacturing: What Every Executive Should Know

Every 25 years or so innovations disrupt entire industries , we are in another period of disruption which only the truly progressive manufacturing companies have realized, and only a few of them have capitalized on. The revolution of the next decade for manufacturing is in the ability to make profound, accurate, real-time decisions. It is being done by the best companies today because the necessary elements have aligned; the data is readily retrievable, computational capabilities are more than adequate, and the advanced analytical algorithms are available. The only thing preventing executives from taking advantage of the disruptive analytical technologies is their relative comfort with their current situation. Here is an example of comfort with the old methods versus the power of analytics: Stock market analysts are in constant demand to provide a single, understandable reason the market moves in one direction or another. You have seen them on television confidently explaining the movement of the world's markets with sound bites. The truth is that these sound bites are no more than entertainment, yet investors continue to find them interesting and even exciting, even though they are grossly inaccurate. Today's successful investment managers do not make decisions based on subjective factors; they use advanced, proprietary analytics to make their decisions. There is no subjectivity, no bias, no reliance on rules that worked yesterday; they identify the rules that are currently in play at a level no human could ever achieve. Amazingly, their analytical systems are designed to watch the market all the time, not once a month, or once a week, but every minute of every trading day. This allows them to watch for new drivers to appear outside of the normal review cycle and adjust as appropriate. Speed of decision making and adaptability has been increased exponentially, along with previously unachievable levels of accuracy. You can have your company making decisions based on fact, today. Your staff could be watching your market continuously, and most importantly, focusing their energy on execution rather than analyses. If you want to lead your market as an analytical competitor (which really is a legitimate decision) you will have to throw out some of the processes you use today and invest in recent analytical innovations. You need to disrupt the status quo and be prepared to deal with the natural instincts of your staff to keep the influence and control they have earned. You need to believe, which is what this white paper is intended to offer, the basis for the belief that you can make a step function change in your business performance through innovative analytics.