Real-time access to data reduces time to insights from weeks to seconds

Previously, the company’s reporting involved the use of spreadsheets, which meant it could take as long as two weeks to get updated figures, and every department and subsidiary operated independently. With the DataOps platform, BL was able to establish a centralized, scalable business intelligence architecture to integrate and analyze information from a wide range of systems – including its energy management system – generating more than 700 reports in seconds. This real-time analysis provides increased transparency in terms of process and resource management. Most notably, by combining smarter materials management and continuous energy reporting with anomaly detection, the platform has helped enable BL to minimize waste, reduce energy usage and make their operations more sustainable.

"We want to be as sustainable as possible," says Daniel Jung, head of business intelligence at Blechwarenfabrik Limburg GmbH. "That means using the data we already have about materials and outputs to optimize our operations. And by adding sensors, real-time analytics, and automation, we can further accelerate our processes, reduce waste, and facilitate substantially lower energy and resource usage. In fact, we are already expected to reduce our energy costs by half a million Euros per year.”

it-novum GmbH, a Hitachi Vantara partner, supported BL during the implementation of the project. it-novum provided extensive training for more than 50 key users, who supported their colleagues to roll out the solution more broadly. This allowed BL to implement more analytics capabilities faster to more people.

“Data is the single most important asset for organizations as they look to improve their overall operational and sustainability posture,” said Maggie Laird, senior vice president of business transformation and sustainability, Hitachi Vantara. “We take a uniquely holistic approach to de-carbonization that brings IT and OT together with green solutions around storage, edge, software, and analytics. We are committed to helping organizations better understand their current data footprint, as well as their carbon footprint, so that they can take action to begin managing data more intelligently to reduce emissions.”

A Strong Foundation of Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Solutions

Recent research has found that becoming more sustainable and socially responsible is a top priority for businesses worldwide. Hitachi Vantara specializes in providing innovative and sustainable solutions that are cost effective, energy efficient, and long lasting.

For example, between generations of storage solutions, the company cut carbon emissions between 30% to 40% compared to previous models – including the procurement of raw materials, production, transportation, five years of use and final recycle. Through application modernization and consolidation, Hitachi Vantara helps reduce your infrastructure footprint, in some cases providing up to 50% saving of data center footprint. And given the company’s deep domain knowledge in energy, manufacturing, transportation, finance, and mobility, it provides ready to use data-driven sustainability solutions for every enterprise.

“Data-driven sustainability means collecting and using data to make decisions that guide measurable and responsible business practices,” said Christopher Keller, director of big data analytics and IoT at it-novum. “Whether it's lowering greenhouse-gas emissions, optimizing supply and value chains, or reducing waste, insights from data can power positive change and at the same time build competitive advantage, reduce business costs, and increase profit.”