Yes, in the cases where statical outliers can actually represent machinery failure, it's important that the 'roll ups' mentioned in the article don't hide real underlying problems.

There's also quite a few other charting techniques that financiers have been using for decades, such as ohlc/bar/candlestick or point & figure or market profile which all have their place in data visualisations. Combine that with financial charting models (ma, stochastics, etc) can go a long way in determining when things are going great/ pear shaped.

But otherwise a decent article.