Every manufacturer has its own industrial intelligence. Some is documented, and some resides in the knowledge of experienced workers.

Consider an experienced operator preparing to restart a line after a changeover. The machine settings matter, but so does knowing how a particular material behaves, what happened during the previous shift, and when an apparently minor variation deserves a closer look. A procedure can describe the sequence, but successful execution depends on the judgment that comes from experience and the organization’s accumulated know-how.

That combination is industrial intelligence: a manufacturer’s accumulated know-how, operating practices, production data, and understanding of its own business.

The opportunity now is to make more of that intelligence available wherever decisions are made, then connect it to the physical world of manufacturing.…