Data typology in manufacturing industries

Data is becoming the new valuable raw material in business and in our everyday life. Like any other raw material, the value of data increases as the degree of information processing in-creases. The ongoing hype in artificial intelligence and big data seems to emphasise the amount of data and the assumption often is that the form or structure of data is relatively sim-ple. Data exchange, integration and interoperability are still serious challenges in industry and business, and failing to succeed in meeting these challenges hinders everyday work and leads to productivity losses. In this report, we focus on defining data as a concept in a comprehensive manner. As the form, structure, amount, source and application of data differs, there is no one definition and no one embodiment of data. The report points out the different forms of dealing with data. We also illustrate the influence of the type, structure and form of data on its use, transformation and exchange, and point out the bottlenecks in application of data, and software development. The report highlights the core domains of the value chain: design and engineering, manufacturing and production, asset life cycle management and life cycle services.The rapid change of the role of data in industry and business, and especially the new and ris-ing opportunities to create new business and services based on data, have emphasised also the challenges related to data. As for any central resource in business, there are technical, but also many other aspects in using data, such as security, openness and availability, processes and even political issues.