Data is critical to facility planning.  With data organizations can plan for the long term, they can make decisions based on facts, and they can weigh options against one another.  I would say there are three criteria for useful data: availability, reliability, and clarity.  All three are necessary; if you have data but can’t access it then it’s not useful; if you have unreliable data then it’s not useful; and if you have reliable data but it’s a convoluted mess then it will be very difficult to discern anything meaningful (i.e. not useful). Continue reading →