R&D departments of many manufacturing companies find it problematic to obtain the appropriate data and analyze it. Difficulties arise in determining how to present the data as relevant information to the decision-makers or to reuse the obtained data and information in the next development steps. Despite all the technical advances in digitization, the majority of companies still require disproportionately high efforts and time to assemble a decision baseline. These difficulties stem from the fact that the data required to generate reports are difficult to find, not up-to-date,
or not reliable.
This opinion piece summarizes some of the regularly observed patterns. It outlines the most important decision metrics for digitally transforming manufacturing and research&development. Combining new technologies and approaches and staying away from blindly following the hype topics can support Digital Transformation if some guidelines are taken into account.