How do you know?
To really understand and manage something, you need to be able to measure or quantify. But, what do you want to measure? What will you learn? How will it allow you to know more and better understand your product or process or environment. What improvements in quality, productivity, product innovation and profit can you expect from that new knowledge?
My answer to that has been to “Put a Gauge on It” or PAGoI. With the convergence of the technologies of open source, low cost computing, low cost storage, high availability networks, big data, machine learning/artificial intelligence, ubiquitous portable small computing, and the Internet of Things, we have reached an inflection point where measurement and control have become feasible at a whole new level: lower costs for hardware, lower software costs, lower development and deployment costs and time frames.
The potential benefits that can be reaped include:
- Increased productivity by exposing critical bottlenecks in process in real-time
- Big Data means that visualizing the data has never been easier. The data can be presented to the people needing it to do their job in real-time and in their hands.