“Database Harmonization and Automation: A Case Study for CNH Industrial”

The importance of data harmonization has been overlooked for a long time and hampered by the lack of data science awareness in organizations. At FPT Industrial, we aimed to integrate all the databases and circulate a single database throughout the company. The problem was to provide this data in the shortest time possible, along with a business intelligence tool that helped in the market analysis. During the internship period of over eight months, the main goal was to develop a procedure that could be repeated and eventually performed automatically once every two quarters in a year. Time and data quality were the two parameters that were implacable, along with a high-quality user interface of the BI tool. After attaining a good knowledge of the status quo, and methodologies used to tackle harmonization problems, I was equipped with the required knowledge and used the developed solutions in different company projects as well. After considering several BI tools and combinations of software during the project, R Programming language and Microsoft Power BI ultimately became the tools of preference. A significant reduction in time of the harmonization procedure and along with a greater level of data quality was reached. The BI tool replaced the existing presentations and allowed the end-user to perform a tailored analysis at their own will. The programming software also allowed the automation of the procedure, i.e., a mere refresh of the code could produce a similar database with the updated data sources. Diligent and meticulous research on big data, data warehouses, harmonization techniques, data cleansing, and wrangling backed the tool preferences made. Different case studies surfaced to elicit a solution that is better than the state-of-the-art. The project also reports the projects I was involved in, the company structure, and my role as a trainee.