28 JUNE 2019 ENGINEERINGAI: Driving the Industry
towards greater success
Manufacturers who choose to modernise will gain increased outputs, higher
quality and less wastage on the factory floor – ultimately allowing them to
improve profitability and succeed in the industry. Martin Walder gives his viewW
e live in a connected world- from phones controlling
the temperatures of our
homes to cars communicating with
one another and to smart web based
systems. Turn on the news and you’ll
see just how these new technologies
are being used to improve the way
we live.
It is therefore not surprising that the
manufacturing sector is also starting
to benefit from these technological
advances to improve production
performance. Today, investing in
technology is likened to success.
Manufacturers who choose to
modernise will gain increased outputs,
higher quality and less wastage on the
factory floor – ultimately allowing them
to improve profitability and succeed in
the industry.
Industry 4.0 and associated
technology, such as IoT, AI and robotics,
have become part of the manufacturing
vernacular, without many understanding
their potential. Digital transformation
offers great unmatched potential for
manufacturers. Not only does it greatly
improve communication between
devices, systems and personnel both
inside and outside of the company,
but it also provides the directness to
cut energy consumption, increases
efficiency, and increasingly delivers even
short-term ROI.
Artificial Intelligence is one technology
that will revolutionise the field. A
recent report by Accenture showed
corporate profits are said to increase by
an average of 38% by 2035, thanks to
the advanced deployment of Artificial
Intelligence into financial, IT, and
manufacturing applications.
In the UK, we’re in the early stages
of AI implementation in manufacturing.
We lack in clarity as to its deployment
across multiple use cases. However,
many organisations are evaluating
potential risk and reward scenarios,
and the technology is becoming more
widespread. Investing early, as with
Digital Transformation pay dividends, but
there are some crucial lessons to follow.AI: helping humans and machines
become more collaborative
AI has the potential to exponentially
increase the productivity of our
industrial assets. It represents a new
way for humans and machines to work
together in industrial applications.
However, in these scenarios, many
variables need to be accounted for
in order to achieve a successful and
competitive outcome.
On the factory floor, AI technologyenables us to learn and predict
tendencies to solve complex problems.
For example, managing a process with
almost countless variables, such as
control of temperatures, pressures and
liquid flows, is very prone to error. In
almost all factory settings, there are too
many variables for any human brain to
analyse successfully. By implementing
AI, crucial operational decisions can
be supported in real-time, greatly
improving safety, security, efficiency
and productivity.
The quality of the data that trains the
AI algorithms needs to be combined
with the human expertise, which is
always needed for interpretation and
guidance. For example, in the Food &
Bev industry, AI can improve quality
inspection, providing humans with vision
analysis and sound analysis which goes
beyond the ability of a human alone.Transforming Industry 4.0
AI is becoming an important part
of Industry 4.0. It brings with it the
great potential for innovation to
dramatically increase the productivity
of industrial assets, better manage
the evolution of the workforce, and
greater energy efficiency.
Let’s take discrete and process
manufacturing as an example. Here,
asset maintenance is one of the
industrial processes that is emerging as
an early AI application. As a result, we’re
seeing more manufacturers understand
that predictive maintenance can be
blended with the more traditionalPRODUCTIVITY
Martin Walder