IMPLEMENTATION OF A MANUFACTURING DATA VISUALIZATION SYSTEM THROUGH AN OPEN-SOURCE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOL

Data represents a very valuable source for companies since it allows supporting decision-making and managerial control. This is even more relevant for those companies operating in a mass customization environment, where product specifications and features are constantly changing. In order to manage the data continuously generated, companies are more and more relying on different information systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution System (MES), and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). However, such systems are scarcely integrated, and it is difficult to have a clear picture of the status of the company. The objective of this work is, therefore, to provide companies with a simple and intuitive data visualization system, which gives access in a clear and structured way to the information collected by the different information systems, in order to exploit the intrinsic added value of data. The data visualization system has been developed by using Grafana, an open-source business intelligence tool. A case study has been developed for an Italian car prototyping company to illustrate the potentiality of the proposed system.