Data-Driven Decision Making: Towards Proactive Prevention

Janne T. Morstøl, chair of Virinco Group, has an impressive background as a champion of innovation and expansion for a string of dynamic companies – including Tandberg Television, T-VIPS, Nevion and Maritech Systems. She also heads up Bliksund, a software company focused on emergency services and primary care systems.

In this blog Janne outlines the need for organisations large and small to get to grips with data, to help inform their business and provide that all important ‘decision advantage’, a necessary prerequisite for success in today’s ultra competitive market place.

Gaining a decision advantage through data

There is a huge difference between collecting data and really understanding it. The need for data may seem self-evident, but still many companies fail to either gain real insights or do anything other than react. Those who gain decision advantage through data are ultimately the winners in today’s competitive market place.

High growth companies demand smart decisions made quickly. That requires access to data of all kinds, but you need to drill down to the right data. Common to all industries is the stark fact that many decisions were made without data. That landscape has changed dramatically. Data is now more and more available, but you need to know how to access it and interpret it and create insight and decision support.

Once you have that access to data, you are able to produce predictions, prediction trends and patterns, and really benefit from data science.

Data needs a business purpose

This is what I see as the next step for many industries – including seafood processing, emergency services software, and electronics manufacturing. Going from data driven insight to where we are today means also using data to predict outcomes and to ensure prevention – to enable action ahead of something happening.

Companies in the electronics sector are starting to use data more proactively. However, in the case of WATS, we are opposing traditional methodologies to control process or production such as SPC (Statistical Process Control). This approach works in stable manufacturing environments such as pulp and paper, but falls short in the electronics industry, where you have a multitude of changes to contend with. While we believe that software solutions need to be continually developed in order to empower the use of data proactively, given that tools like WATS can deliver now, there’s no need for users to wait.

Unless data has a purpose and a business need it is of little or no value. Previously data was hidden somewhere in a server or cloud, difficult to capture, perhaps even unused for a data driven insight. Now we are able to access that data.

Personalising data insight to specific needs

Artificial intelligence and filters are welcome additions to data analysis and will inevitably lead to further developments of machine learning across applications of data learning and insight.

That said, the end user of any product is still going to be a human, and the use of data needs to be geared to the ability to make informed decisions, improving customer service and outputs. Manufacturers need to make processes more efficient so that people can spend that time on other areas.

Interestingly, now we are developing the ability to flag up variations or differences that need to be posted to a user, or the opposite where some R&D tests are of no interest. This is, in effect, personalising the data insight to specific needs.

Watch this space, as we navigate the need to provide early warnings that are relevant to the manufacturing process and dismiss potential costly alarms that are more stop than start.

Don’t miss out on turning data into insights and decision advantage in today’s competitive world. Talk to the WATS team today.