Big Data Analysis in Smart Manufacturing: A Review

The technological evolution emerges a unified (Industrial) Internet of Things network, where loosely coupled smart manufacturing devices build smart manufacturing systems and enable comprehensive collaboration possibilities that increase the dynamic and volatility of their ecosystems. On the one hand, this evolution generates a huge field for exploitation, but on the other hand also increases complexity including new challenges and requirements demanding for new approaches in several issues. One challenge is the analysis of such systems that generate huge amounts of (continuously generated) data, potentially containing valuable information useful for several use cases, such as knowledge generation, key performance indicator (KPI) optimization, diagnosis, predication, feedback to design or decision support. This work presents a review of Big Data analysis in smart manufacturing systems. It includes the status quo in research, innovation and development, next challenges, and a comprehensive list of potential use cases and exploitation possibilities.