Your smart manufacturing investment deserves to actually work.
Most manufacturers in this region have the technology. What stalls the ROI isn't the tools. It's the data environment those tools are running on.
Schedule a Discovery CallYou're short on decisions your team can act on.
You invested in Industry 4.0 technology that was supposed to make your job easier. You have reports from your sensors and dashboards built. But the meetings still start with ten minutes of "which number are we using?" and are postponed while someone reconciles the numbers. Now that you have the numbers, you have to wait while somone with authority to act on the reconciled numbers is found. All while production continues to build inventory and your rework costs skyrocket.
That's not a data problem. That's a decision infrastructure problem. And it's exactly what stalls Industry 4.0 investments before they ever deliver a return.
The investment was sound, but the environment wasn't ready.
Digital and smart manufacturing tools don't fail because they're the wrong choice. They stall because the conditions around them weren't built to support adoption. These are the patterns we see in nearly every engagement.
Reports conflict. Two people pull the same KPI and get different numbers. Every meeting opens with 10 minutes of reconciling spreadsheets, only to conclude with postponed decisions and no clear path forward.
Nobody owns the number. When a KPI breaks threshold, three people think it's someone else's call. By the time a person with authority is found, your costs are compounding.
The dashboard exists. Nobody trusts it. Your team built the dashboards, but everyone still runs on gut feel and personal spreadsheets because the data isn't trusted enough to act on.
The investment was made, yet the returns aren't visible. Ownership is asking questions. You know the potential is there, but the environment isn't built to capture it.
We fix the environment before it kills the investment.
Great Lakes Analytics helps manufacturers across Northeast Indiana, Northwest Indiana, Western Michigan, and the Chicagoland manufacturing network build the data foundation their Industry 4.0 strategy depends on. Scoped to your operating environment or business unit, not just a facility. The trust layer, the ownership structure, and the decision cadence that makes everything else perform.
Surface exactly where confidence fractures across governance, KPI ownership, decision cadence, and data trust across your operating environment. Leadership leaves the readout aligned on priorities and first steps.
Install the operating system your Industry 4.0 investment runs on. One owner per KPI, one source of truth, one cadence that holds under pressure. Runs directly from your DRIVE findings across three facilitated sessions.
Ongoing advisory to keep momentum from stalling, DRIVE score re-assessment each quarter, and a thinking partner when decisions get hard.
Every engagement begins with the DRIVE Index™ Audit, a structured diagnostic that scores your facility across five dimensions of data readiness. It tells you exactly where you are, what's blocking adoption, and what to fix first before spending another dollar on technology.
Most manufacturers start with the Audit. Most don't stop there.
Each engagement is fixed scope, fixed fee, and designed to build on the one before it. You can enter at any stage, but the DRIVE Index™ Audit is the fastest way to know where to start.
DRIVE Index™ Audit
Structured diagnostic scoped to your operating environment or business unit. Surfaces exactly where data confidence breaks, what to address first, and aligns your leadership team on priorities before the engagement closes.
Data Culture Workshop™
Installs the ownership structure and decision cadence that makes your data investment perform. Runs directly from your DRIVE findings across three facilitated sessions.
Monthly Advisory Retainer
Ongoing strategic access. DRIVE score tracking, quarterly re-assessment, and a thinking partner when decisions get hard.
Fixed fee. Predefined scope. No surprises.
This approach is documented, not improvised.
The frameworks used across every Great Lakes Analytics engagement were developed and tested inside complex operating environments where digital solutions were expected to perform, not just launch.
The Data Culture Handbook captures that body of work for leaders who need their data investments to actually stick. It exists because the problem is real and repeatable, and so is the solution.
The book isn't the service. It's evidence the method works.
Start with a conversation. Not a commitment.
A discovery call is 30 minutes. We'll talk about where your data environment is today, where it needs to be, and whether a DRIVE Index™ Audit makes sense as a first step.
Schedule a Discovery CallSouth Bend Corridor, Western Michigan, and the Chicagoland Manufacturing Network.