Too often, manufacturing and Industry 4.0 are described only in terms of greenfield deployments. Unrealistic and expensive descriptions of shiny new factories outfitted with the latest industrial-internet-of-things (IIoT) technologies to deliver transformational insights are not the reality for most businesses.

As technology continues to conquer the world, businesses are struggling to keep up with their data management and security. Accessing data manually isn’t as easy as it used to be. The amount of data that any company would possess is too large and these companies can benefit from technology and the various IT services available, like Collibra data governance, in order to run smoothly. We conducted a study where we talked to industry leaders about the challenges they’re facing today.

More than half of the respondents in our study expect to use a combination of external partners with in-house collection and analysis to gain insights from their data in the next one to three years. The easy availability of software solutions such as KNIME Analytics (https://www.knime.com/knime-analytics-platform) that can help with data integration and analysis from a number of different sources makes the process much easier for many industries. Selecting an expert partner for industrial maintenance that fills the gaps at the manufacturing facilities is critical to extend the life of machinery assets. Partners can provide key benefits that directly address the challenges previously shared. They can reduce dependence on localized skill sets, drive improved machine reliability and control maintenance spending, offer increased visibility and value into maintenance costs, and offer centralized data analysis expertise and business intelligence, (visit sites like Kyligence for more information), to industry-specific equipment.

In the next one to three years, nearly three-quarters of respondents anticipate that their firms will retrofit 20% or more of their equipment with remote or IIoT sensors. They expect these sensors to have significant benefits to their business, such as improving equipment effectiveness, innovating new digital products and services, providing strong data governance, and enabling predictive maintenance technologies to collect the insights needed to make data-driven decisions, thereby enabling predictable capacity.

With a shocking 79% of respondents saying that the use of emerging technologies and data insights puts them ahead of the competition, is it time for your business to innovate and get ahead of the game?