It is no secret that Industry 4.0 is upon us, and it is transforming traditional manufacturing into an adaptive and customer-centric environment capable of supporting new, innovative business models and revenue sources. As manufacturers increasingly embrace Industry 4.0 technologies in an effort to realize value, research indicates that leading organizations are set apart by their focus on the core of their industrial operations on the factory floor.

Many manufacturers encounter issues with data—poor data connections, numbers that lack context, and non-standardized information. The nature of Industry 4.0 demands manufacturers make sense of their data and put it to use effectively—going beyond mere connectivity to secure reliable, standardized, and contextualized data that informs important decisions.

To overcome the problem of meaningless data, manufacturers must understand the importance of contextualization and follow an actionable path to contextualize their factory’s data. If they do so, they can break through stagnant data lakes and drive meaningful action.