Nearly every sector of the economy is being transformed through digitalization driven by data. Through the proliferation of sensors, IoT (the Internet of Things), smart applications and devices, human-generated data, and access to open data, industrial operations are producing large volumes of rich data of different types. Big data and advanced analytics technologies enable the collection, integration, and processing of rich data from many sources at scale and speed. Typically, the objective has been to make industrial operations more efficient. With increasing social and environmental concerns stemming from climate change and depletion of natural resources, many industries are transitioning from the traditional linear economy to the circular economy in which products and materials are kept in use for as long as possible, reducing waste and pollution.

Opportunities arise to use big data and analytics technologies to make industrial operations more sustainable as well as more efficient. In this talk, we will discuss the challenges facing industry in digitalization and the transition to the circular economy, and we will show how big data, advanced analytics, and related digital technologies can address these challenges.