In a previous blog post, we discussed the data tsunami and its impact on both engineering and business operations in many industries. The data tsunami first hit the telecom industry in the mid-to-late 90’s. At that time, voice networks had begun to go digital. This created a tremendous amount of data that had to be managed. So telecom carriers began to use software systems for network traffic and asset management. These systems used master data management and analytics to cut through the massive amount of signaling and configuration data. The changes enabled their employees to be more productive and maintain competitive service levels.
In the early 2000’s, the tsunami hit enterprise computing. This drove the development of software systems for enterprise data, master data management, and data extraction. Here, too, companies turned to software systems in order to remain competitive in the face of the data tsunami.
The Simulation Data Wave Is Here
Now, the same thing is happening in engineering. Software companies have invented new ways to organize complex data. However, in many companies, the engineers are still approaching CFD analysis the same way they did before the data explosion. These engineers are spending up to 30% of their time writing their own scripts and macros.
MIT Sloan Management Review recently posted an article entitled, Analytics: The Widening Divide. The authors pointed to a recent MIT Sloan and IBM Business Value Institute study that showed:
“…growing divide between those companies that, on one side, see the value of business analytics and are transforming themselves to take advantage of these newfound opportunities, and, on the other, that have yet to embrace them.”
The study concluded that those organizations that have adopted analytics “…leave (the) others behind.”
The MIT Sloan study was primarily about business analytics. We suggest the same holds true for engineering analytics. The adoption of software tools to automate processes like CFD simulation data management and visualization will free up engineers to focus on analysis and design. As a result, these engineers will produce higher quality products faster and at lower cost.
Engineering organizations that remain bogged down in lower-level activities like writing scripts and wrestling data will fall behind, and firms that embrace engineering simulation analytics will engineer higher quality products.
Contact Us about Tecplot Chorus, Simulation Data Management Made Easy
Tecplot, Inc. supports the engineering community with leading-edge tools for simulation data management and visualization. Tecplot Chorus dramatically reduces the time and effort required to collect, manage, extract, and visualize CFD simulation data. This allows engineers to focus on analysis and design.