Leveraging AI And Big Data To Address Manufacturing Challenges

A lot of the hype surrounding artificial intelligence in manufacturing is focused on industrial automation, but this is just one aspect of the smart factory revolution — a natural next-step in the pursuit of efficiency. What artificial intelligence also brings to the manufacturing table is its capability to open up completely new avenues for business.

Now, pair this capability with the crucial performance of big data in the manufacturing world, and you have yourself a winning equation. In Industry 4.0, big data analytics plays a role in a few areas including in smart factories, where sensor data from production machinery is analyzed to predict when maintenance and repair operations will be needed. Through application of it, manufacturers experience production efficiency, understand their real-time data with self-service systems, predictive maintenance optimisation, and production management automation.

“The silver lining is that there is a significant prospect in Industry 4.0 where efficiency can be improved, with consistent and competitive price positioning,” explained Prassana Burri, the CIO of Dangote Nigeria, he was speaking at the CIO Africa Industry 4.0 Forum. He went on to extrapolate that it is not clandestine that AI and big data are transforming and automating every industry, and manufacturing is not an exception.

The technology along with the rapid development of robots are already changing all aspects of manufacturing. With the capability of real-time monitoring, AI can encounter production bottlenecks, track scrap rates, and ultimately meet customer delivery times, whilst Big data can create entirely new business models, services and products.

“Automation many times brings peripheral issues with people being anxious about how it might affect their jobs and roles,” averred Burri.

The CIO Africa Industry 4.0 forum stood up to its reputation towards being an unparalleled meeting place for decision-makers, manufacturing and production managers, digital leaders, and other business professionals to share knowledge and experience in optimising the production in the age of technology.

Speaking of manufacturing, the grammy’s of the African tech world, the CIO100 Awards’ nominations are now open, and there is a manufacturing sector where you can bag the coveted top spot. For more information, click here.