Digital Manufacturing Ireland (DMI), the national body for driving digital transformation in manufacturing, is to establish a new national Centre of Excellence for Data Driven Manufacturing and will also host a major conference to advance the opportunities that this can unlock for industry this coming summer.  

“The importance of becoming a data-driven manufacturing organization is rooted in the increasing competitiveness of manufacturing industries".

“The importance of becoming a data-driven manufacturing organization is rooted in the increasing competitiveness of manufacturing industries. As technology evolves, the volume of data generated has been increasing exponentially. Without capitalising on the insights to be gained from this data, some manufacturing companies will likely struggle to scale their digital transformation, drive innovation and keep pace with competitors", explained Mike Kiely, Senior Manager for Data Science.

With data analytics, bottlenecks can be identified, operations can be optimised, and waste can be reduced. This leads to higher productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, by putting data into the hands of the right people and at the right frequency, this empowers them to make decisions based on facts and in a more timely manner.

‘A data-driven enterprise covers all aspects of the business to help monitor their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs apply to functions such as Quality, Sustainability, HR, and more so that they are consistently informed on their targets. All of which will allow for a healthier operating culture due to far less ambiguity throughout the decision-making process’, according to Kiely.  

For supply chain integrity, companies can leverage data to build a digital twin to help identify potential issues before they develop as well as simulating scaling of the business into the future.

"We believe becoming a data-driven organisation is a game-changer for manufacturers and this is why we intend to put such emphasis on this transformation opportunity in 2024".

“Ultimately, embracing data-driven methodologies positions manufacturing organizations to be more agile to market fluctuations, improve their gross margin, and gain a competitive edge in an increasingly complex and dynamic industrial landscape”, explains Domhnall Carroll, CEO of DMI. “Our collaborative group approach to centres of excellence brings manufacturers together as co-collaborators in solving shared challenges to realise solutions that can be deployed across diverse sectors. It is proving to be a quite unique route to delivering real advantages to Irish-based manufacturers. We believe becoming a data-driven organisation is a game-changer for manufacturers and this is why we intend to put such emphasis on this transformation opportunity in 2024".

A call for participants for the new collaborative Centre of Excellence for Data Driven Manufacturing will be announced shortly, as will details regarding the major conference on this theme scheduled for late May.

For more information connect with DMI.