More is better? The role of strategic data management in a lean manufacturing process

Abstract

Purpose Lean manufacturing has been pivotal in emphasizing the reduction of cycle times, minimizing manufacturing costs and diminishing inventories. This research endeavors to formulate a lean data management paradigm, through the design and execution of a strategic edge-cloud data governance approach. This study aims to discern anomalous or unforeseen patterns within data sets, enabling an efficacious examination of product shortcomings within manufacturing processes, while concurrently minimizing the redundancy associated with the storage, access and processing of nonvalue-adding data. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a lean data management framework within both edge and cloud computing contexts, this study ensures the preservation of significant time series sequences, while ascertaining the optimal quantity of normal time series data to retain. The efficacy of detected anomalous patterns, both at the edge and in the cloud, is assessed. A comparative analysis between traditional data management practices and the strategic edge-cloud data governance approach facilitates an exploration into the equilibrium between anomaly detection and space conservation in cloud environments for aggregated data analysis. Findings Evaluation of the proposed framework through a real-world inspection case study revealed its capability to navigate alternative strategies for harmonizing anomaly detection with data storage efficiency in cloud-based analysis. Contrary to the conventional belief that retaining comprehensive data in the cloud maximizes anomaly detection rates, our findings suggest that a strategic edge-cloud data governance model, which retains a specific subset of normal data, can achieve comparable or superior accuracy with less normal data relative to traditional methods. This approach further demonstrates enhanced space efficiency and mitigates various forms of waste, including temporal delays, storage of noncontributory normal data, costs associated with the analysis of such data and excess data transmission. Originality/value By treating inspected normal data as nonvalue-added, this study probes the intricacies of maintaining an optimal balance of such data in light of anomaly detection performance from aggregated data sets. Our proposed methodology augments existing research by integrating a strategic edge-cloud data governance model within a lean data analytical framework, thereby ensuring the retention of adequate data for effective anomaly detection.