Data Driven Industries

byWayneTowns

409 followers

6 years ago

As computers have become more popular and become more advanced the gathering of information has become critical for businesses to stay profitable. Information technology is more crucial than ever and has led to what is now considered data gathering. Data gathering is the accumulation of information that is needed to operate a business or corporation. We now have people and computers dedicated solely to the collection of all the information relevant to the operation of the company. All this data gathering is fantastic if used suitably, but when it is bungled, it could lead to a lot of unwanted consequences.

Information Gathering

We can take a look at any company today and see all the data that is collected, sometimes way too much. When one thinks about a sizable online retailer such as Amazon or Wal-Mart, think of all the information they gather.

A prospective employee is interviewed, and the information about the interview is stashed away. Information such as how well he or she may get along with other employees, how well they interact with other people and, does this person work better alone or with a group? There are many tests and ways that Human Resources people determine how a person will perform on the job and which department they may be better suited.

Data is stored for customers to see what they ordered and when. How long did it take from the time they request the products until they received their order. All retailers are gathering this data to serve the customer better.

Data Driven Trucking Industry

Some of you know, I was in the trucking industry for quite a few years. At the start of this year, the Electronic Logging Devices were mandated by the government. The ELDs enabled the industry to be able to collect much more data about the operation of the drivers' and their equipment.

Supervisors now track time spent at the loading docks of shippers or receivers. They can record time spent fueling the trucks and how much fuel was purchased. Alternatively, the time spent at a truck stop for meals. They now have engine sensors that can record the RPMs as the truck is traveling, as well as keep up-to-the-minute data on oil temperature and pressure. Sensors that record up-to-the-minute air pressure in all the tires. All this information is relayed to the home office and can be read by dispatchers or maintenance personnel at any time.

As I said, this gathering of information is great if used correctly. It all depends on the people that are evaluating the data. In the case of the truck driver, if you have a college educated dispatcher who knows nothing of how complicated driving a big rig in a snowstorm; there may be some counteraction created between a driver and his supervisors. The trucking industry has always been able to attract drivers', but this is fast receding because they have taken away a drivers' independence.

Robots?

What bothers me in all this is, are we losing human compassion or human understanding in the operation of our businesses? All this data is creating people that operate like computers. There are ads now on the internet about software that can write blogs for us. I doubt this will go very well with the search engines, but there will still be many who use this. The human aspect of things is being taken out of our lives slowly, day by day. I do not think we need to build robots; I believe computers are turning people into robots!

Thank you all for reading! Wayne