The historical dependence of manufacturing on spreadsheets is changing. Spreadsheets haven't yet gone out of fashion but they are certainly under threat! Select manufacturers are capitalizing on data, maximizing its value, leading to significant transformation in their manufacturing operations. These manufacturers, who are currently in a minority, are leading the way by replacing their trusted spreadsheets with modern data management tools and analytics practices. The recent Economist Intelligence Unit survey, 2013, commissioned by Wipro Technologies called 'The Data Directive' showed that five out of six manufacturers do not have appropriate data management strategies to help improve the quality of their decision-making. If your business is one out of six that does have a data management strategy, congratulations -- you are ahead of the curve!

The survey showed the shocking state of data management in the industry. Manufacturing (16%) and retail (13%) were the least prepared with data management strategies (see figure below for a comparison between manufacturing and other industries from the research).

What were the reasons for manufacturing's inability to effectively leverage data? The study revealed startling answers. It showed that the biggest barrier to move forward with a data management strategy was a lack of clarity on which data matters most (40%). As many as 34% of the executives in the study worried "that the quality of their decisions are actually being impaired by data overload."

With a volatile business environment and unpredictable economic conditions, with fickle consumer behavior and rising competition, shrinking product lifecycles and stringent regulations, manufacturing needs to come up with accurate data-based responses. This is especially so given that the survey spells it out in no uncertain terms: analytics is proving to be a differentiator in many businesses. Smart manufacturers are already saying they are not interested in reports of yesterday's performance or alerts for today. They just want to know what they should be doing this morning to ensure business growth. This may appear to be a tall ask, but data and analytics are helping manufacturers find answers to questions such as:

• How can I reduce down time of equipment without the expense of routine preventive maintenance?
• How can I discover the potential product defect even before the customer knows it?
• How can I improve traceability of defective components?
• How can I avoid shipping defective components and reduce returns?
• How can I contain warranty costs?

In effect, manufacturing is finding ways to maximize the use of data to stay competitive. Is your business doing the same? Is it moving on from descriptive reports that reek of a pointless post mortem to alerts about the action required at this moment? Further, is it capable of delivering forecasts on the expected business scenario and what to do about it? In other words, if you are not moving towards prescriptive business intelligence, you need to take a fresh look at your data and analytics strategy. To understand the real impact of data and analytics and the success factors for your strategy, click here .