I’ve lived in my home for 20 years now, and a lot accumulated and cluttered the living space over that time. So much so that it periodically requires a full purge of possessions. When that happens, the industrial-strength dumpster rolls onto the driveway, and I start cleaning house.
Once done, it’s like a weight has been lifted. And it’s not just about physical things. Clutter can bog you down and take away your focus. Cleaning up the mess allows for more transparency and productivity. The same is true in this data-driven world that we live in.
Manufacturers working toward digital transformation on the plant floor, the packaging line, and the automated warehouse, need to do similar housekeeping. That means disposing of irrelevant information and reconciling disparate and disconnected data encumbering the environment. By tidying up the data infrastructure, they create a solid foundation for integrating systems and layering analytics, artificial intelligence, digital twin technology, and other applications.
Given, however, that the systems involved are often 20-year-old legacy machines and proprietary control systems, manufacturers will need a professional cleaning crew — perhaps in the form of system integrators — to scrub data sitting in separate silos and organize it to provide context across all systems and applications.
Ultimately, disparate data needs to be merged and put into context. And that requires a new kind of data structure.
Unifying the data foundation
To understand the context of data requires understanding the role of each asset, how they interact, and even what is being produced on the line. Traditionally, integration has been point-to-point from the sensor to the PLC to the SCADA system. This linear setup creates a data jam in a digital transformation effort that requires aggregating and analyzing data from systems scattered around the plant and enterprise.
What’s needed is a unified approach to data management. Enter the Unified Namespace, a concept pioneered by Walker Reynolds, president of 4.0 Solutions, an IIoT training program.

Digital transformation on the factory floor starts with cleaning data. Source: Adobe Stock
Reynolds was a keynote speaker at WTWH Media’s 2024 Digital Transformation Forum in Boston, a conference designed to educate manufacturers on the technologies and strategies for — you guessed it — digital transformation. Reynolds provided an overview of what the Unified Namespace is, which, in general, creates a standard way of organizing and naming data that becomes a single source of truth across the manufacturing and business structure.
This year, the Digital Transformation Forum has evolved into the Advanced Automation Forum. It is still about digital transformation, but instead of providing high-level explanations of the technology that enables such projects, attendees will hear from system integrators and end users who will share their own in-the-trenches experiences of digital deployments.
Speakers will outline examples of how they cleaned their own manufacturing house — being the factory floor. They’ll demonstrate the benefit of unified data in action during hands-on demonstrations. Other important topics will include data integration, modernizing legacy systems, applying industrial AI, digital twins for product development and capital investments, cybersecurity, the unifying of IT/OT departments, upskilling the workforce, and much more.
If it’s time to clean up your plant floor in preparation for digital transformation, I encourage you to join us at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, April 30 – May 1, 2025. Registration is now open. Let’s get our digital data house in order, shall we?
Filed Under: Commentaries • insights • Technical thinking