With the launch of Chat GPT 4.0, we can see how important artificial intelligence (AI) is. AI is changing everything around us and helping us work better. It's up to us to decide if these changes are good or bad since everything has pros and cons. This year, AI is reshaping many industries, including manufacturing. Companies are using AI to speed up processes and cut out unnecessary steps, saving time and money. This means customers get their products or parts faster. Here are some examples of how AI is changing manufacturing around the world.
The AI Effect on the Manufacturing Scene
In the manufacturing scene, AI technologies, such as inventory management, supply chain optimization, machine learning, product development, predictive maintenance, robotics, and quality control, are appearing. Here are the examples of how they are transforming the scene.
Inventory Management: An AI-powered inventory forecasting technology can check your stock levels in a timely manner and generate data on what inventories will be out-of-stock and require to be ordered. It detects and tracks stock order issues so that they are reduced and solved before they disrupt the manufacturing process.
Supply Chain Optimization: Supply Chain Optimization technology is so advanced that AI can look at past data to figure out what caused problems before, like unexpected demand, supply shortages, and manufacturing issues. By analyzing this data, AI helps companies create better supply chain strategies to avoid these problems in the future and make manufacturing faster and smoother. This means products get to customers quicker, leading to happier customers and lower costs.
Machine Learning: Machine learning technology is being used in supply chain optimization, inventory management, quality control, quality assurance, and predictive maintenance. It looks at data, analyzes it, learns from it, and comes up with solutions to improve manufacturing processes. As technology gets better, it helps make manufacturing faster and more efficient, saving time and money.
Product Development: AI is widely used to develop new products and make manufacturing easier. Machine learning can collect data on customer feedback, market trends, competitor analysis, and potential risks in product development. This information helps create new products that meet customer expectations and provide a smooth user experience. Generative AI software also helps improve product design, leading to better final products..
Predictive Maintenance: Predictive maintenance is changing the manufacturing industry by leveraging AI technology and analyzing data from sensors. Real-time data is generated about how the equipment is running, its downtimes, and potential issues that can happen. From the data, we can know when the equipment should be repaired and called for maintenance, which results in time and cost savings from unforeseen issues that can arise.
Quality Control: The quality control process is the most important step in the whole manufacturing process. As the final product is delivered to the market or the clients, it is subjected to inspection to see if it meets the required standards or criteria. An AI automated inspection sensor senses potential defects or variations that are occurring and prevents the company from handing the defective equipment to the client and causing failure.
Global Examples of AI in the Manufacturing Industry
Germany, aiming to hold the global leader position in AI technology, launched an AI strategy in 2018 and is using AI to keep its place in manufacturing. Siemens, a global technology company, uses AI to improve its production processes. The company’s Amberg Electronics Plant, which is the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry, utilizes AI for tracking and modifying machinery in real-time. This significantly decreases downtime and improves product quality,
Japan is at the forefront of the robotics industry, making 45% of the world's robots. In 2022, this brought in $7.35 billion in revenue. Japan is using AI to improve manufacturing. One big company, Fanuc, uses AI to help their industrial robots work better. They learn as they work, so they can be efficient and precise without making mistakes. This helps Japanese manufacturers finish tasks on time and with low costs, even as fewer people work in factories.
Smart manufacturing, also called Industry 4.0, means moving from the old-fashioned way of making things to a smarter way. The United States is leading in smart manufacturing, and General Electric (GE) is a big part of that. They use advanced AI in their manufacturing software. It looks at data and figures out what problems might happen with the parts or equipment they make. It also makes manufacturing better and schedules things to improve how they manage their supplies. GE has proven that they can reduce downtime by 25% and increase manufacturing efficiency by 20%.
The world’s manufacturing hub, China, is making use of AI to accelerate the manufacturing process. The well-known e-commerce company Alibaba uses AI technology such as natural language processing, speech recognition, machine learning, and computer vision to provide a flawless user experience to their customers from all over the world. And one of its long-term visions, Xunxi Digital Factory, was built to process production, monitor real-time operation, analyze data, and cut down waste and production costs by promoting efficiency and green manufacturing.
A major electronics company, Samsung, based in South Korea, integrates AI to streamline production processes. It is mainly used in semiconductor manufacturing facilities to detect defects in the early production stage. This way, it prevents wasting materials and repeating the production, which results in a decrease in production cost and time. Kyung Kye-hyun, head of Samsung's semiconductor business, mentioned that the AI chip is under development and is expected to begin mass production by year-end.
The Future of AI in the Manufacturing Industry
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is accelerating to transform the traditional manufacturing ways into cost-effective, waste-free, and time-saving ways. From Germany's precision engineering to Japan's advanced robotics, the United States' smart manufacturing, China's mass production capabilities, and South Korea's electronics manufacturing, AI is changing industries globally. As AI technology advances, the future for AI to further revolutionize the industry is highly promising and anticipated.
Are you looking for a good source to manufacture custom parts for your company? Factorem’s AI-powered matching platform is the one for you!
No MOQ, no trade restrictions, top-curated suppliers from Southeast Asia! Get a quote just by uploading a design file and check out within 1 minute.
