Why data drives more sustainable and profitable industrial operations

 

John Markus Lervik, CEO and Co-Founder, Cognite

 

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As consumers, we have access to all the data we need. But for those working in the industrial world, that’s not the case.

 

The lack of access to data in industry leads to lower profitability, a larger environmental footprint, and greater risk. This is because industrial data is stuck in independent and unconnected silos, and is unavailable for better decision-making.

 

We need to move asset-heavy industries closer to where consumer applications are today. Think about the navigation systems we use in our everyday lives. These applications combine data from multiple sources, enabling the consumer to easily check, for example, store hours, restaurant ratings and estimated travel time from a single interface. It gives them a unified view of what’s going on.

 

We need to do the same for industry, so we can access necessary and meaningful data in one place, rather than through multiple systems.

Data opens the door to greener and more profitable operations

At a time when the climate emergency is topping the global agenda, digital transformation and sustainability must be at the core of any industrial strategy. Industrial players aim to optimise production while minimising their environmental footprint. This requires data from IT systems and maintenance systems, along with information about the operations at any given time. Only once this information is combined can companies begin optimising processes, reducing their carbon footprint and maximising production.

Go beyond proofs of concept

Too often, companies approach digitalisation too narrowly to make an impact. They may have a proof of concept to show potential value, but they struggle to scale it. If we want to capture value at scale, a robust data architecture is essential. This makes it possible to contextualise data from all systems, giving it meaning and empowering users with a unified model of industrial reality – one that both humans and algorithms can use to optimise and automate industrial operations.

Industrial transformation success requires three key things:

1. Making digital transformation and sustainability core parts of your strategy, owned by the CEO and board.
2. Making data available across the value chain, merging information from OT and IT systems, so you can apply algorithms and AI to optimise operations.
3. Making capturing value at scale a top priority, and ensure that applications are deployed across the enterprise for greater profitability and sustainability.

It’s time to liberate the data and put it to work

At Cognite, we help solve industrial data challenges with our Industrial DataOps platform, Cognite Data Fusion. This platform liberates data from different systems and then connects it together. This enables anyone, whether they’re on an oil rig or at a factory, to fuse together data and extract meaning from it – converting the raw data into real business value. It’s a giant step towards more profitable and sustainable operations, helping industry move closer to the consumer world in how it uses data to make a difference.

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Learn how Cognite can turn your industrial data into business value.