AI’s Emerging Potential for Manufacturing

The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies out of the realm of data science theory and into the practical world of business operations is opening up a rich stream of new AI-driven possibilities for the manufacturing sector.

That’s a top-line finding from analysis produced earlier this year by Datch, a provider of voice-enabled AI tech that aims to allow the industrial workforce to interact with enterprise databases.

“During this time of digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for the manufacturing industry are proving to be fundamental when it comes to streamlining processes and optimizing operations,” the company said. “Organizations across the world are understanding how essential digitalization strategies are to gaining competitive advantages.”

“Innovative advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, computer science, and cloud technologies are being implemented by manufacturing organizations to effortlessly tackle a variety of challenges within the industry,” it said.

According to Datch, major benefits to AI in manufacturing applications include:

• Time savings, where AI-driven techniques can arrive at efficient solutions in manufacturing processes in a fraction of the time that it would take through standard procedures;
• Predictive maintenance that prevents downtime in manufacturing operations by up to 90 percent;
• Distributing manufacturing process knowledge across wider portions of the workforce as older portions of the workforce retire and make domain specialists harder to find and hire;
• Solving process bottlenecks including creating work orders, logging operational data, and problem-solving during downtime

“By digitizing procedures using high-quality, structured expert knowledge data, Datch’s cutting-edge natural language processing (NLP) technology effectively decreases downtime while increasing productivity and revenue that is conventionally wasted on manual processes,” the company said.

The company cited statistics showing that among manufacturers pursuing digital transformation, 34 percent are making investments in AI tech, and 19 percent are doing so in machine learning technologies. “As this percentage continues to rise, AI implementation will soon be the most critical part for any organization’s competitive edge,” Datch said.