Domain knowledge or data scientists?
Let’s look at it backwards to try to understand why those who collect large amounts of data don’t harvest the benefits, and how you can tap into the potential.
In the early days of the digital transformation, many of us – or at least I – imagined that if we just had a gigantic database, optimizations and insights would come pouring out of it. Big data was the big buzz.
Now, with the tools available to collect all that data and create a giant data lake, reality is that the sheer amount of data is too overwhelming. Especially if you don’t have the necessary domain knowledge to draw meaningful insights and actions.
Inhouse data scientists may be excellent at analyzing data, but without the domain knowledge and operational insights possessed by operators and providers of warehouse automation systems, they often search in blindness for even the most obvious insights.
Access to the data lake doesn’t put food on the table if you don’t know how to fish. To fully utilize the data, you need to apply the domain knowledge from your operators and your equipment suppliers.
Sorry, we don’t have time to save an hour a day
Those who collect data without acting on it actually often have an excuse we all recognize: lack of time.
A perfect example of this is customers of our own AI solution, the Operator Eye, that increases the uptime of Körber’s Layer Picker. It does so by using neural networks to analyze pictures in real time to avoid unplanned stops and to automatically reset the machine if an alarm is caused by a non-critical event like a loose slip sheet.
Improving uptime by 8-12% is pleasing enough for our customers. So, when we tell them that all the data the Operator Eye gathers can be used to significantly improve the operation through the entire value chain, they kind of wave it off with a sentence like: “Sounds great, but we don’t have the time or the resources right now.”
I completely understand. We are all busy, and sorting through your master data can lead to a lot of work across your operation. But the answer always reminds me of the old cartoon with the people from the stone age who say “No thanks, we are too busy” to the man offering them wheels while they are sweating pushing a cart full of heavy rocks.
