Manufacturing Execs Share Six Practical Ways They are Using AI

On Friday, February 23^rd, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) hosted their annual “Focus on Manufacturing Breakfast” and took a deep dive into AI.  Many thanks to Wade Goodsell, Kurt R. Bauer, Nick Novak and the WMC Team for organizing a terrific keynote and panel of local executive leaders.

Local celebrity and keynote Matt Kirchner kicked things off with an eye-opening review of the impact AI is having on manufacturing (and every industry for that matter; he shared how he had attended the Phoenix Open and was picked up by a driverless car). 

Time to get to 100 million users

• Yellow pages:  75 years
• Smart phones:  10 years
• Chat GPT:  2 months

Matt emphasized that AI is just another Lean Tool to eliminate waste and improve performance.  The first question should not be “what data do we have?” but “what problem do we need to solve?”  For example, based on our current orders, production, and pipeline…what does cash flow look like 14 months from now?  With AI, one executive is seeing a 20-30% improvement in forecasting accuracy.

AI is forcing leaders to take a serious look at talent.  For example, the purpose of having interns flipped in just the past few months. We used to hire them to teach them skills, now they teach us.  “You won’t lose your job to AI but to someone who is using AI.”

AI live examples in manufacturing

• To scan an object up to the size of a freight car within tolerance of 1 human hair, perfect the drawing, then 3D print it. 
• To find purchase price inconsistencies. 
• To performing finishing steps on a part, even when lot size is 1. 
• To replace radios with communication systems that translate any language in real time. Think United Nations on your shop floor.  Used by everyone in the company, the new “PPE.”
• To dig into safety metrics and prevent injuries, improve triage processes.
• Ren:  an app that takes contacts from CRM, LI, Outlook and consolidates.  Based on findings it writes “catch up” or “congrats” emails for you. 

Beware of the challenges

We heard from Sarah Alt, Chief Process & AI Officer of Michael Best, about areas where companies have struggled, with three areas in particular:  data privacy, bias, and IP.

Takeaways

• Hire a sherpa to figure out how AI is disrupting your industry niche specifically.  (CLA can help with that).
• Sign up for a Digital Readiness Assessment to determine why, where and how to leverage AI.
• Start with Lean value stream mapping or you just speed up chaos.  Get your processes in order before you get to far down the AI journey.
• Signup for Matt Kirchner’s The Tech Ed Podcast.

Like to explore opportunities to transform your business?  Contact us.