Accelerating industrial transformation with Microsoft AI solutions

Introducing new manufacturing data solutions in Microsoft Fabric and copilot template for factory operations on Microsoft Azure AI.

Manufacturing is one of the most data-intensive industries, as massive amounts of data are generated from sources such as sensors, machines, enterprise systems, and human interactions. However, most of this data remains siloed, unstructured, and underutilized, thereby limiting the potential for data-driven insights and innovation. To overcome this challenge, manufacturers need a unified data estate that can connect, enrich, and model data across information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems—enabling easy access and analysis of data for every employee.  

We are announcing the private preview of manufacturing data solutions in Microsoft Fabric and copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI, under the Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing. These solutions help manufacturers unify their OT and IT data estate and accelerate and scale data transformation for AI on Fabric, our end-to-end analytics software as a service (SaaS) based platform. The copilot template for factory operation on Azure AI helps manufacturers to create their own copilots for their frontline workers using their unified data. They can use natural language to work with the data and handle scenarios such as root-cause analysis, knowledge discovery, training, issue resolution, asset maintenance, and more.  

These solutions, alongside our partners supporting it, will be showcased live for the first time at Hannover Messe Industrial Conference 2024.  

Manufacturing data solutions in Fabric 

Manufacturing data solutions in Fabric brings together OT data like factory sensor telemetry, and IT data like inventory data, into a unified data foundation in Fabric. The solution extends the value of the data by enriching it with the relevant context, following an industry standard International Society of Automation (ISA-95) information model. For example, the temperature reading of a production equipment at a specific time (OT data), is overlayed with all the information of the batch of material going through that machine, from the production order from your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or test result from your quality system (IT data). 

The solution ingests data from different factory sources ranging from the Internet of Things (IoT) devices to systems of records like manufacturing execution systems (MES), and more. The data is stored in Fabric for unification, enrichment, modeling, and aggregation. This unified data foundation provides a scalable and repeatable pattern to tackle all factory domain data projects—accelerating the pace of innovation, freeing up IT resources, and maximizing the value of current technology investments. 

Copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI 

Once the data is enriched and ready for AI, manufacturers can leverage the factory operations copilot template plugin to Azure OpenAI Service, augmented for complex manufacturing systems like MES. The copilot template validates results against the manufacturing data solutions through post processing to avoid hallucinations and provides responsible AI guardrails to ensure only relevant and safe responses are given within the manufacturing setting. The users, such as a Quality Engineer or Plant Manager, can use a custom interface, like a chatbot or a dashboard, to communicate with the data in natural language to obtain insights and make improvement decisions. 

To learn more about technical aspects of these solutions, review our deep dive technical blog.

Realizing the value of factory data with AI 

These solutions are already supporting leading manufacturers globally to tackle complex use cases like production monitoring, waste management, quality management, and worker enablement. 

Intertape Polymer Group increases production performance with factory data and generative AI  

Intertape Polymer Group (IPG) uses Sight Machine’s Manufacturing Data Platform to continuously transform data generated by its factory equipment into a robust data foundation for analyzing and modeling its machines, production processes, and finished products. IPG is now using Sight Machine’s Factory Copilot, a generative AI with an intuitive natural language chat interface, powered by the copilot template for factory operations on Azure AI. This tool facilitates the team’s ability to rapidly gather insights and direct work on production lines which previously operated like black boxes. Instead of working through manual spreadsheets and inaccessible data, all teammates—including production, engineering, procurement, and finance—have better information to drive decisions on products and processes throughout the plant, improving yield and reducing inventory levels.

“Our partnership with Sight Machine and Microsoft is ever evolving and continues to become more important to our daily operations within the plant, facilitating real time decisions on real time data.”

—Bill Bourgeous, Plant Manager for the IPG Tremonton, Utah facility 

Schaeffler, democratizing information access across their factory workforce

Schaeffler, a leading motion technology company, has embarked on a mission to democratize information access across their factory workforce. Employees can gain easy access to key metrics like scrap rates, yields (the proportion of usable or acceptable components), and energy usage over time using the chatbot. This will be vital to help drive cost and carbon reduction co-benefits.

“Artificial Intelligence, and in particular Generative AI, is already having an impact on the daily business at Schaeffler. Especially in the field of manufacturing and operations, the ongoing operationalization of AI solutions, combined with intensive training, enables us to optimize, rethink, and innovate the core of our company—our plants. As a leading motion technology company, Schaeffler has the ambition not only to participate but to proactively shape this ongoing transformation.”

—Stefan Soutschek, Vice President Digitalization and Operations IT, Schaeffler

Bridgestone is creating a unified factory data foundation to enhance product quality

Bridgestone is partnering with Avanade to confront production challenges head-on, focusing on critical issues related to production disruptions and scheduling inefficiencies, like yield loss, which can escalate into quality issues. As a private preview customer collaborating with Avanade, Bridgestone aims to harness the power of manufacturing data solutions in Fabric and the copilot template on Azure AI. Their goal is to implement a natural language query system that enables frontline workers, with different levels of experience, with insights that lead to faster issue resolution. The team is excited to establish a centralized system that efficiently gathers and presents critical information from various sources and facilitates informed decision-making and enhances operational agility across Bridgestone’s production ecosystem. 

“We are excited to accelerate our industrial transformation with AI in partnership with Avanade and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing, particularly we recognize the disruptive ​potential of generative AI, and true to our values, we want to be at the forefront of innovation equipping our front-line workers with powerful tools, like copilots, to optimize our operations.“

—Bart Kerhofs, Vice President of IT for Bridgestone, Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing partner ecosystem 

These solutions are enabled by an ecosystem of partners with deep industry expertise. Systems integrators and software vendors enable factory data ingestion from different systems by building custom or proprietary connectors into Fabric—embedding the solution capabilities into their applications or building custom UI experiences for the copilot templates on Azure AI. We want to thank our private preview partners for supporting these solutions and our customers.

• Accenture and Avanade: Private preview implementation partners for manufacturing data solutions in Fabric and copilot template on Azure AI.
• Sight Machine: Manufacturing Data Platform and Factory Copilot on Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.
• Litmus Automation: Litmus connector.
• AVEVA: AVEVA Connect and AVEVA Data Hub on Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing.
• Rockwell: Integration of Rockwell’s Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform with FactoryTalk DataMosaix and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing. 

To learn more about each of our partners, review the deep dive technical blog. 

Learn more at Hannover Messe 2024 

With manufacturing data solutions in Fabric and copilot template on Azure AI, manufacturers can better connect factory ecosystems, drive productivity, and enhance business operations using conversational assistants and accessible data analytics from the factory floor. To watch a live demonstration of these solutions, discover the additional capabilities of Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and our partners, and to engage with subject matter experts, join us at the Hannover Messe Industrial Fair 2024, in Hannover, Germany from April 22 to 26, 2024 in Hall 17 Stand G06. 

Explore Hannover Messe announcements and Microsoft AI solutions

• Read Azure IoT’s industrial transformation strategy on display at Hannover Messe 2024.
• Read Microsoft unveils AI features for manufacturers at Hannover Messe 2024.
• Build intelligent apps at enterprise scale with the Azure AI portfolio.
• Reshape how everyone accesses, manages, and acts on data with a single, AI-powered platform.
• Work smarter, be more productive, boost creativity, and stay connected to the people and things in your life with Microsoft Copilot.

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Source: Microsoft Industry Blog