After a big data lecture by Professor Dr. Bayu Jayawardhana of the University of Groningen, the managers experience a high-tech safari to YP Your Partner and BD Kiestra.

How do we handle data? And what can our data mean for our customers? Host Klaas Jan Hutten, Director of Industry at ING, gives his humiliating answers succinctly. “We can predict before the entrepreneur how his company is going. And we can see from the surfing behavior of our customers that they are tense about the development of their investment portfolio.” Algorithms seem to be the magic word. According to Hutten, revenue models and the development of cost prices will change drastically. ,,We are living in a fantastic period'', he exults, ,,but the supply of raw materials and the influx of personnel is becoming increasingly difficult. This is a signal that economic growth will slow down.” That is why Hutten advises the industry to prepare your company for the future right now. “This period of cash is ideally suited to continue the transition.”

Flintstone

According to Professor Jayawardhana, this transition can only be made if communication between industry and knowledge institutions is optimal. “Without in-depth knowledge of the possibilities of interpreting and using data, the industry will miss the latest developments. Then China will have caught up with us in no time.” This sounds a bit menacing from the professor's mouth, and that's perhaps what it's meant to be. If we don't innovate, we miss the boat. As an example of the entanglement of knowledge institution and industry, he shows the project Ocean Grazer, of which he is the co-founder. "With this project, we are answering the growing demand for sustainable energy and showing how you can make big data work for you." Using Fred Flinstone as an example, the professor shows how in prehistory and later big data, the information present in the environment has already been interpreted. "People could navigate with the starry sky and weather forecasts could be made on the basis of nature." We now also have this kind of 'prior knowledge' thanks to our data flows. “It is important that we learn to properly interpret the data and then link it to, for example, our production processes, in combination with smart software, sensors and cameras. The result is predictive maintenance and thus extend the life of machines.”

machine learning

That is exactly what Theun Prins, owner of YP Your Partner, is doing. He extracts data from processes and machines and visualizes this, so that users can draw conclusions based on their knowledge and experience. ,,If you see 24 degrees you don't know anything yet. But when you see it in the hospital on a display next to a patient's bed and it's about body temperature, you know this isn't good. You can't do anything with the data alone, you need the environment and knowledge to interpret it correctly in order to use it.” Prins develops remote process and machine control for customers. He calls it remote monitoring. "We not only increase the uptime of machines and installations with our systems, but through machine learning, our customers now know exactly when parts need to be replaced, for example, and therefore do not have to carry out maintenance earlier than necessary." Prins knows the value of context information, but points out that most companies are not yet doing anything with this to make their machines smarter. "That's why people are still necessary to interpret information." According to Prins, it won't be long before machines themselves interpret the context.

Smart collaboration

Everyone knows that product life cycles are getting shorter, market demands are getting higher and margins are getting smaller. Time to market is more important than ever. ,,We currently connect more than 50 thousand systems and installations with our CARS software objects and convert the data into valuable information. In this way we create value from data that leads to action, such as energy savings, predictive maintenance or knowing everything about your processes.” According to Prins, the road to success with data is sensoring, connectivity, collection, analysis and action. Here again a resounding example, the banana ripening machine from high tech partner VDH Products from Roden. Within two years, this product was sold in 25 countries. The key to success? Open communication about the job requirements and the possibilities. “That's crucial, trust each other, work together and recognize that there are more smart people working outside your company than within your company. So, data in the cloud supplemented with knowledge is success 'to make or save money'.”

bacteria

BD Kiestra uses big data very differently. They use data in combination with knowledge and environmental factors to save human lives. "With our system, doctors can determine within 24 hours which bacterium has caused a person to become ill and which antibiotic should be given." Jan Lucas, R&D manager at BD Kiestra, says that less than ten years ago this process took more than five days. . “What we do is important work. We have drastically reduced the research time and doctors can also give the right antibiotic with certainty, which also prevents unnecessary resistance.” Lucas explains that the number of trained microbiologists worldwide is insufficient to staff all laboratories. “As a result, the demand for automation is increasing sharply.” According to him, laboratories are busy ruling out diseases in half the time. “With our system we add value by not only excluding, but also by stating what is included. In this way it can be determined which antibiotic is needed and we really help doctors in their work.” The lab machines do this by making images in a time series in different light waves and colours. An algorithm uses various aspects to determine which bacteria is growing there. “We also use big data to optimize clinical outcome.” That is exactly what the founder of BD Kiestra had in mind when he ended up in hospital in the 1990s. There he remained uncertain about his diagnosis for a long time, because all the research was done manually. According to Lucas, the ultimate dream of BD Kiestra is to bring together all the images and results of all customers worldwide. Our algorithms learn from this and we can quickly determine not only which bacterium is growing, but also whether a new bacterium is growing.

Industry top

The High Tech Safari Industry Northern Netherlands is organized annually by ING, FME and Innovatiecluster Drachten. The aim is to make the Northern business community aware of the very rapid development of industry towards smart factories and the decisive influence of digitization in production, business operations and sales.