Manufacturing industry data are distributed, heterogeneous and numerous, resulting in different challenges including the fast, exhaustive and relevant querying of data. In order to provide an innovative answer to this challenge, the authors consider an information retrieval system based on a graph database. In this paper, the authors focus on determining the essential functions to consider in this context. The authors define a three-step methodology using root causes analysis and resolution. This methodology is then applied to a data set and queries representative of an industrial use case. As a result, the authors list four major issues to consider and discuss their potential resolutions.