Eagerly adopting artificial intelligence

In 2022, The Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) market was worth $2.3 billion and according to a MarketsAndMarket.com report, it’s poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47.9%, reaching $16.3 billion by 2027. Technology, such as AI, has a growing role in manufacturing for navigating a challenging economic environment, as seen in Fictiv’s 2023 State of Manufacturing report. Of those surveyed, “85% plan to or have already adopted AI technologies to help drive productivity and efficiency gains.” Additionally, “97% expect AI to impact product development and manufacturing as technology becomes increasingly important for leaders to navigate a challenging economic environment, tight labor market, and workforce productivity barriers.”

However, what exactly does AI encompass and what are the benefits?

AI delivers greater manufacturing efficiencies, lower costs, reduced scrap, improved quality, and reduced downtime – just to name a few benefits – but AI itself isn’t a process. AI in manufacturing is using machine learning (ML) to optimize manufacturing processes through improved decision-making and data analysis. ML puts together data from different sources, helping users understand how the data is acting and why, and which data correlates with other data. It takes historical evidence in the data and reports the probabilities between various choices and which choice worked better in the past. It tells of the relevance of this, the probabilities of certain outcomes, and the future likelihood of these outcomes. AI is the suggested action to take based on information supplied by ML.

AI can be used in various ways within manufacturing – supply chain analysis and visualization, intelligent asset management, product lifecycle management (PLM), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), advanced industrial robots, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), the digital twin, and more. A great example is the feature article starting on page 20 that explains how Freudenberg Medical went from four weeks of training for medical device manufacturing and assembly to just 3 days – all by implementing VR.

As the Fictiv report explains, “Leaders are increasingly sourcing parts closer to home and looking for suppliers with the expertise and capability to deliver quality parts at the pace the market demands. They’re investing in upskilling their people and are betting big on digital tools powered by AI to enhance their teams’ capabilities and increase productivity.”

How is your company approaching AI?