Big data daunts the manufacturing sector

Forrester conducted an online survey of 232 manufacturing organizations located in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and South Korea, as well as five in-depth qualitative interviews with similar companies. The study began in April 2016 and was completed in May 2016.
According to the report, just over half (51%) of product companies with an Internet of Things device are collecting data from connected products, but fewer firms are actually using the data.

This represents a missed opportunity to utilise valuable data, as companies focus their time and resources on just connecting products and capturing data, rather than creating actionable insights from the captured data.

“There are a lot of components of a connected product for manufacturers to think about, but when initially entering the IoT space, their main focus is on connectivity,” says Forrester Consulting

“When we asked manufacturers that currently have devices available how much time was spent on various product capabilities, connectivity was at the top of their list, representing about 20% of the total effort. However, the reality is that many of the key drivers for IoT can’t be realized by just connecting a device.”

The report has also found that product manufacturers typically need third-party support to maximise IoT efficiency. Support needs range from connectivity to security to device management. It seems that companies are relying on external expertise rather than in-house skillsets to provide the technology and expertise to help operate their connected devices effectively.

Managing connected products (74%) is seen as the most important capability for IoT-enabled connected products, while actually connecting connected products (61%) is the most challenging. 38% of companies think data and device security will be the biggest challenge with implementing IoT-enabled products.

Differentiation (62%) is seen as the biggest reason why manufacturing firms would deploy IoT-enabled connected products, ahead of enabling new monitoring capabilities for products (61%), generating revenue (61%) and enhancing customer experience (53%).

Meanwhile, just 29% are utilising captured data to make decisions in real time, 32% to personalise interactions with individual customers and 34% to profile and segment customers.

According to a Gartner study conducted in November 2015, it is estimated that there will be 6.4 billion connected devices globally by the end of 2016, with that number expected to skyrocket in the near future.  As data connected devices increase at an exponential rate, so will the data they produce, which will only amplify this challenge.