From data to decisions: Harnessing generative AI in manufacturing

Manufacturers around the world grapple with challenges such as fragmented data, inefficient processes, and the need for real-time decision-making directly at engineering workstations, factory lines, and field services locations. Microsoft and its partners are at the forefront of addressing these issues, empowering industrial organizations to harness the power of generative AI to enhance operational processes and decision-making. Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing is designed to help manufacturers achieve greater efficiency, agility, and resilience.

The integration of Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing with Microsoft Fabric offers a comprehensive framework for data integration and analysis. Manufacturers can unify and contextualize complex industrial data within a single, secure platform, allowing both on-site teams and remote stakeholders to access and visualize data in real time, making informed decisions based on actionable insights.

Explore Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing

Microsoft Fabric offers a robust environment for developing next-generation, AI-powered industrial solutions, providing semantic data interoperability through an open standards-based manufacturing ontology. This ensures that manufacturers can use the full potential of their data, driving digital transformation and operational excellence.

Benefits of generative AI in manufacturing

Generative AI is transforming manufacturing by enhancing efficiency, productivity, and innovation, helping to simplify decision-making across all phases of the product lifecycle. It automates processes from design to quality control, speeding up production and optimizing workflows. This allows manufacturers to focus on strategic tasks, driving productivity.

Manufacturers can benefit from using generative AI in several ways:

Process automation: Identifying bottlenecks and optimizing workflows can speed production times and increase overall operational efficiency. This automation not only streamlines operations but also allows manufacturers to focus on more strategic tasks, thereby driving productivity.

Cost savings: Generative AI improves predictive maintenance and reduces waste, cutting costs and preventing downtime.

Innovation: Continuously analyzing data and learning from it with generative AI can suggest innovative solutions that might not be apparent through traditional methods.

Better decision-making: Facilitated through data analysis and scenario simulation, generative AI provides valuable insights for informed decisions that can enhance operations and competitiveness.

Reduced downtime: Achieved through predictive capabilities that identify potential issues before they occur, generative AI helps to ensure smooth and efficient operations. Continuous production helps manufacturers meet targets and deliver products on time.

Driving industrial innovation with Microsoft partners

Microsoft partners play a pivotal role in transforming manufacturing by building industry-specific solutions that integrate data unification and contextualization capabilities into Microsoft technologies. For example, AVEVA is enabling this transformation by developing connectors that embed these capabilities into Fabric.

CONNECT, AVEVA’s industrial intelligence platform built on Microsoft Azure and soon to be integrated with Fabric, offers the flexibility and robustness of having both cloud and on-premises industrial applications. CONNECT enables both on-site teams and remote stakeholders to access and visualize contextualized, complex industrial data and make decisions based on real-time intelligence.

Built directly into CONNECT is AVEVA’s Industrial AI Assistant, an AI tool co-developed with Microsoft, that serves as a virtual subject matter expert in the form of a text conversation, powered by Azure OpenAI Service. The Industrial AI Assistant offers insights, allowing quick issue resolution and decision-making for operations teams, maintenance crews, analysts, supply chain employees, and others.

The Industrial AI Assistant can help enhance the employee experience for both frontline workers and corporate stakeholders. For instance, a wind turbine operator can use AVEVA’s Industrial AI Assistant to investigate why a blade fractured. The process involves detecting unusual power levels, identifying parts needed for repair and maintenance, and creating predictive notifications to avoid future fractures. Similarly, an automotive manufacturing plant supervisor can use predictive maintenance recommendations from dashboards powered by CONNECT to simplify the equipment maintenance process, reducing the workload for equipment reliability analysts.

Amcor improves line performance with AVEVA’s Industrial AI Assistant

Despite using a traditional supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to capture data across its 23 manufacturing facilities, Amcor, a global leader in manufacturing rigid plastics and responsible packaging, found it wasn’t getting enough value out of its data.

Amcor used CONNECT, AVEVA Operations Control, and AVEVA’s Industrial AI Assistant to completely revamp its operational processes. It began storing, processing, analyzing, and visualizing its data in CONNECT. Amcor then used Industrial AI Assistant to look for performance and downtime issues, as well as looking across molding machines for process variances. Ultimately, Amcor was able to reduce its production cycle by 3% and improve overall equipment effectiveness by 2%, contributing to a more sustainable manufacturing process

Looking forward: The future of industrial AI

Microsoft is committed to driving the future of industrial AI. This commitment involves not only enhancing existing solutions but also exploring new frontiers in AI and machine learning to address the evolving needs of the manufacturing sector, including empowering customers to achieve their sustainability, agility, and resilience goals.

By using advanced technologies from Microsoft and our partner ecosystem, manufacturers can unlock new levels of efficiency, productivity, and innovation in a secure way. The integration of AI-powered solutions helps in predictive maintenance, quality control, and supply chain optimization, leading to significant cost savings and increased operational efficiency. As a result, manufacturers are better equipped to navigate challenges and seize opportunities, paving the way for a more sustainable and resilient future.