Michelin drives big data strategy with Microstrategy analytics

To provide insight into the data generated, Michelin is using Microstrategy analytics tools. "The department is only providing the meta data and the database that is collecting a lot of data from the plant, and then the users are allowed to create their own dashboard," he explained.

Speaking at Microstrategy, Douaillat said that the company is dealing with petabytes of data across its business, with volumes expected to increase as the company brings in information from wider sources to analyse. For example, the company plans to fit its tyres with sensors, and is buying in telematics data from insurers and car manufacturers.

"We are starting to bring in a lot of this data that can provide us with information about the way people are using our tyres," he said.

Social media analysis

Another area where Microstrategy is being used is to support big data plans is around monitoring of social media feeds. As well as producing tyres, Michelin is also known for its travel and restaurant guides, which, alongside its main product set, generate discussion online. For example, there have been 75,000 tweets about the company in the past five months.