AI for Manufacturing: Why You Need to Digitize Your Manufacturing Process

Efficiency and productivity are a big deal when it comes to manufacturing. Finding better, faster ways to manufacture goods is what separates the good from the great.

The good fix problems as soon as they arise. The great spot them before they surface.

How?

By embracing digital transformation in manufacturing, that’s how.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) speeds up the process of digital transformation in manufacturing with many benefits—such as fewer errors and reduced production costs. According to a 2020 MIT poll, 60% of manufacturers are adopting AI to improve product quality, increase supply chain speed and visibility, and optimize inventory management.

In this article, we’re exploring the role of AI in manufacturing by looking into questions like How is AI used in manufacturing? How are so many companies benefiting from it? How can you do it too?

Let’s answer these questions.

Why is AI important in manufacturing?

All manufacturers strive to develop new and innovative ways to save and raise profits, decrease risks, and increase overall process efficiency.

New technologies, particularly AI-based advancements, are the key to making these changes.

Let’s see why exactly the role of AI in manufacturing is so important.

AI drives down costs

Organizations can improve their analytical capabilities by leveraging AI technology, allowing them to use their capital more effectively, generate better projections, and lower inventory expenses.

Companies may also transition to predictive maintenance. This involves identifying issues before they occur by using AI to evaluate the manufacturing process. For example, AI-powered intelligent vision systems are able to detect misaligned parts or wrong components to alert manufacturers of potential issues.

Predictive maintenance helps organizations eliminate downtime and lower operational costs—thanks to improved analytics skills.

AI decreases production errors

Many assembly plants lack the procedures and technology necessary to detect faults throughout the production process. Those that may already exist are quite simplistic—they often need expert engineers to create complex processes that require manual maintenance.

Manufacturers can save thousands of hours by dramatically lowering mistakes thanks to an AI-based system that can learn from vast amounts of data. By learning from previous production cycles, AI models can spot issues and dramatically reduce errors—reducing the need for human intervention.

AI improves overall production efficiency

There are always opportunities to automate and optimize manufacturing processes, and every second saved counts.

Manufacturers can collect massive amounts of data and transition to real-time analytics using smart AI-based solutions. This enables them to gain insights faster and make operational, data-driven choices in real-time—such as fixing production bottlenecks, checking scrap rates, fulfilling client delivery deadlines, and more.

AI decreases labor costs

Automation in manufacturing also opens opportunities for cost optimization when it comes to labor costs. Many manufacturing jobs can be performed with AI-powered solutions, reducing the need for mundane tasks to be performed by human employees.

Human employees can be trained for higher jobs in design, maintenance, and development as more and more job duties are handled by machines. Moreover, human-machine collaboration is estimated to enhance productivity in labor-intensive environments by 20%.

Investing in AI saves on labor costs in the long run, and enables your employees to learn new skills for your organization.

Now is the time to digitize your manufacturing process

First came the industrial revolution, and now it’s time to embrace the AI revolution.

Artificial Intelligence is able to learn and adjust to your factory floor to make better, more informed decisions on expected customer behavior, production abnormalities, and more.

Here’s why now is the time to take the leap.

Covid-19's impact on AI in the Manufacturing market

Despite steep declines across a wide variety of industries, 41% of organizations have increased their AI plans during COVID-19. Businesses have turned to AI to speed up remote operations, improve the user and customer experience, and cut expenses.

This is likely due to AI reducing the need for in-person employees by automating processes and implementing changes. Contactless processes have been essential throughout the pandemic and are a key benefit of AI that hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Keeping up with Competitors

AI in the manufacturing industry is becoming increasingly popular—more than half of European manufacturers—51%—are embracing AI solutions.

It’s paying off—these competitors are seeing cost reductions and revenue increases. In fact, 71% of companies polled saw an increase of at least 5% in revenue, and 52% saw a cost decrease of at least 10%.

If you don’t want to get left behind by your competitors, you might want to start thinking about AI in your manufacturing processes today.

What size manufacturing company should use AI?

Any company can take advantage of the power of AI, regardless of its size—here’s how.

Using AI in large companies

Large companies have the ability to implement AI at scale and feel the benefits immediately.

All that’s required is data—and large companies have lots of it. They feed the AI model data to train it and quickly reap the benefits of AI-powered insights.

For example, the BMW Group uses Artificial Intelligence to assess component photos from its production line, allowing it to detect issues in real time. An AI application cross-references vehicle order information with a live image of the freshly built automobile.

An AI-powered image classification model compares current pictures from the camera with hundreds of recorded photos in milliseconds and detects any deviations from the norm.

The picture database stores model identifiers as well as all commonly acceptable combinations to provide more accurate analysis. The final inspection team is notified if the live picture and order data do not match, for example, if an identifier is missing.

Using AI in small and medium-sized companies

Small and medium-sized business decision-makers are still grappling with how to incorporate AI in their everyday business processes. This is often due to the incorrect assumption that AI capabilities are out of budget for small businesses. This just isn’t the case.

AI solutions require an upfront investment from companies, but the return is well worth the initial cost. It can be easily maintained and doesn’t require a team of engineers and developers to implement or update it.

For example, take a look at how Vetevo use AI for object detection to detect the presence and quantity of worms in microscopic images. It first classifies images as including worms or not, and then identifies the number of worms in a positive sample. This same approach can be replicated in manufacturing during the quality inspection process.