Data Refinery

The Refinery is a production workshop doing data cataloguing or standardisation from “raw” data which is “rich” or “poor” data - as used by the customer before standardisation - to “refined” data which is catalogued and standardised. It is similar to a manufacturing production line where raw material comes in and a complete and final product is produced.

As in other production lines, work is done to specific specifications and standards with quality control. In the Master Data environment world class standards are used for data cataloguing and standardisation such as eOTD, NATO, e-Class, USC, SMD, etc. The PiLog Refinery uses all these standards depending on the customer requirements. The Refinery has a capacity to do between 25,000 and 30,000 items per month when doing full research which is the top-end product. Where a customer requires less, the production capacity can be increased to between 60,000 and 70,000 per month. An important factor is that the capacity could be increased or decreased at short notice.

Refined data will result in complete descriptions which are always the same. The different users like the end user, the store man, the purchaser and the supplier speak the same language and there is no doubt as to the identification of the item thus ensuring that the correct item is purchased. Another advantage is that duplicates could be identified and taken out of the system with substantial savings to the owner.

The production of above-mentioned quantities can only be achieved with software tools made to fit for this purpose. Through the years the software is adapted to a stage now where there is a solid baseline to work from and with little room for improvement. This software is unique and could not be found anywhere in the world.

Apart from software, quality is of cardinal importance. The less good quality achieved the less the capacity in production achieved. Many quality procedures are built into the software and it gives the Cataloguer the opportunity to do his/her own Quality Control at the press of a button. That in turn gives PiLog the opportunity to use less Quality Controllers.