At Future Workforce, we work to help manufacturing businesses adopt AI into their everyday workflow – taking their operations to the next level. In this article, we’ll discuss prevalent modern manufacturing technologies and offer insight into the benefits and uses of AI in manufacturing.
If you’re in the manufacturing industry and want to improve your AI implementation, get in touch.
What Technology is Used in Manufacturing?
Manufacturing incorporates technology from all different fields and disciplines. From admin tools to factory equipment, innovations in technology are making constant upgrades to every business element – resulting in synergistic growth and efficiency increases across the board.
However, some innovations have been more impactful than others. Here are the top six technological advancements from recent years that are making a major impact on manufacturing processes:
1. IoT and Integrations
New software and platforms within the IoT (Internet of Things) exists to integrate with your existing systems, or comes as part of new system packages. This software allows for greater insight and control of your systems, such as enabling remote monitoring and interaction with manufacturing assets.
Remote control is imperative when things are in hard to reach or hazardous places, while also enabling on-the-fly amends for your processes without putting a halt on your entire operation.
2. Digital Twins
Digital twins are fully rendered digital versions of physical entities. They can come at any scale, from minute individual components to entire facilities. A form of augmented reality (AR), digital twins enable you to test and modify your space and assets – and predict potential impacts – without committing to expensive replacements or refurbishment before developing an informed plan.
3. Robotics
More advanced robots allow manufacturing assembly lines to produce intricate products to high standards without constant need for human oversight. This doesn’t replace humans in the manufacturing process chain, but instead serves to enhance their operations and enable a focus on more strategic work.
4. Simulation Technology
Similar to digital twins, simulation technology revolves around creating virtual copies of the products themselves. This allows stress and limit testing without wasting valuable assets – especially important for high-value industries like automobiles.
5. Real Time Location Systems and GPS
Also known as track and trace, Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are an often overlooked, but intensely important, part of the manufacturing process. The time when products aren’t on the belt is just as important as when they are, and RTLS and GPS enable you to keep better track of goods in transit – resulting in fewer losses and greater efficiency for your manufacturing process, without much of an increase in cost.
Learn more about AI solutions for last mile delivery challenges >
6. Artificial Intelligence
AI is the cornerstone of modern manufacturing processes. Smart factories, AI co-bots, and GenAI integrations with your systems and operations all rely on artificial intelligence to achieve the greatest results. Industry 4.0 is being shaped around the implementation and effective use of AI, and with recent advancements – and our help – making the most out of AI solutions is easier and more accessible than ever before.
The Benefits of AI for Manufacturing
AI is the most impactful advancement for manufacturing in recent years, perhaps ever. It offers a number of benefits to different steps of your process, including:
Quality Assurance
AI can near-instantly check your data, products, and assets for faults, comparing them at extremely precise levels to what they are expected to look like. This can help you prevent faulty products from reaching the market, increasing your credibility and drastically improving the quality of the products you produce.
Factory Automation
Many processes in manufacturing require engagement from an active party, but are often repetitive in nature. AI can handle these repetitive tasks instead of humans, freeing workers up for more involved tasks and saving them the monotony of these repeated processes. Plus, using AI instead of people means the process can be more precise and customisable, resulting in better operational efficiency too!
Find out more about our enterprise automation services >
Supply Chain Analysis
Since it has such a large scope for data analysis, AI can keep your entire supply chain in mind when planning routes for procurement, processing, and delivery. This saves both you and your clients time and money, finding the optimal supply chain routes and amending them according to opportunities that arise.
Learn more about the role of AI in supply chains >
Line-Side Replenishment
AI can predict market trends and provide accurate estimates for the goods you should have on hand and on order. This can drastically reduce the chances of over- or under-stocking your facility, meaning you’ll always be able to meet your clients’ demands without cutting into your profit margins to do so.
AI Co-Bots
Through co-bots, AI enables humans to work closely with robots, adding in otherwise unobtainable safety measures that stop the AI from causing any harm to people or assets in unpredictable working environments. This greatly increases the efficiency of human operators, and enables machines to work on extremely precise and detailed tasks due to the scaled-down nature of the technology – plus, they don’t tend to require massive rigs like standard manufacturing robots.
Manufacturing AI Services from Future Workforce
With a wide range of potential applications across customer support, procurement, administration, and your internal factory processes, AI is a highly transformative technology for the manufacturing industry. Once it gets going, you’ll find it an intuitive way to make improvements throughout your processes, but getting it off the ground and integrated into your systems can require a helping hand.
That’s where we come in – at Future Workforce, we help you find the right ways to implement AI technologies into your working activities, giving your business the boost it needs to stay ahead in the competitive modern world. To find out more, or get started with incorporating AI into your everyday, get in touch!
Find out more about the applications of artificial intelligence with our ultimate guide to GenAI >
Check out our report on upcoming and in-action tech trends for 2024 and beyond >
Meet the Authors
Dan Johnson
DirectorDan.Johnson@fwfcompany.comDirector and Co-founder at FWF UK. Dan has committed his career to the technology industry and has over a decade of experience working at senior strategic levels in Financial Services, including Insurance Process Automation Lead at Accenture UK&I and Head of Automation at Close Brothers Bank.
