What Is Business Intelligence (BI)? | Examples & Why to Use BI | Optel

As an electronics manufacturer, you understand the challenges that surface throughout a product’s lifecycle. With so many variables to consider throughout the manufacturing process, it can be challenging to identify and improve upon factors that impact everyday performance.

That is why you must harness the benefits of business intelligence. BI analysis will help you better understand real-time data so that you can make better decisions, increase productivity, and support long-term growth and development.

What Is Business Intelligence (BI)?

Put simply, business intelligence or “BI” refers to the applications and technologies that allow businesses to collect, integrate, analyze, and present critical information. Although BI yields many benefits, its core purpose is to enhance better decision making, and in turn, sustained growth.

By leveraging key services and software, you can quickly and easily transform massive amounts of data into usable information — the type of information that will drive critical decisions and innovative strategies.

For example, say you are manufacturing a new electronic product line. In doing so, you will be generating an immense amount of data relating to materials, equipment performance, production, etc. Although you may technically have access to this data, without an efficient system in place, it would be nearly impossible to monitor these variables in a meaningful way accurately.

Unfortunately, this inability leads to lost productivity, negatively impacting your bottom line. Whether you strive to improve plant performance or reduce labor costs, you need business intelligence on your side.

Learn more about Optel’s business intelligence for electronics assembly today.

Why Use Business Intelligence Solutions?

What is business intelligence used for that can’t be handled manually? All industries can benefit from organized, well-presented data. Whether it be in the form of a report, map, graph, or table, BI software makes data easier to comprehend so that you can make informed decisions.

Some of the main reasons why you should invest in business intelligence include, but are not limited to:

• Improved operational efficiency— BI allows you to see where your money is being spent and helps you put your budget to good use. Based on the information received, you can adjust your current business models, techniques, methods, and processes to improve operational efficiency and increase revenue.
• Increased revenues — Speaking of revenue, BI will provide the type of insights you require to increase your bottom line. In the manufacturing industry, waste elimination is key. By implementing a BI strategy, you will be able to reduce wasteful overproduction, over-processing, and defects (with the help of Optel’s quality control software for manufacturing), all while maximizing your workforce.

The Purpose of Business Intelligence: Examples

A prime example of how you can increase efficiency and productivity is to create a real-time OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) chart.

By leveraging the insights in an OEE, you can alter key variables to improve production flow. In this case, both performance and quality are considered to maximize peak effectiveness.

Some other examples of business intelligence usage and the associated benefits include:

• Real-time collection of all production data regarding everything from material data to traceability data.
• The implementation and documentation of historical work order completion reports and plant production reports.
• Performance monitoring related to machine run time, downtimes, setup time, and more. This real-time data is tracked by the hour, shift, day, month, etc.
• An increased ability to effectively plan and schedule, based on collected data. This also supports more effective, targeted decision making.
• A reduction in physical labor and enhanced time management (as data is collected and presented automatically without the need for manual collection and input).

If you’re interested in what a business intelligence system can do for your core electronics assembly objectives, please contact us today!