After years of uncertainty such as supply chain disruptions, rising customer expectations, changing consumer demands and labor shortages, manufacturing remains one of the most resilient and complex industries. be. Today, we are witnessing manufacturing enter an era of transformation driven by AI and new AI-powered industrial solutions. This AI-driven change is forcing many organizations to fundamentally change their business models, leading to data silos due to disparate data assets and legacy products, supply chain visibility issues, workforce shortages, and the need for upskilling. is prompting us to reevaluate how we address industry-wide challenges. Employees, especially. AI is more than just an automation tool; it is a driver of innovation, efficiency, and sustainability. AI innovation creates opportunities for manufacturers to accelerate time to value, increase operational resiliency, optimize factory and production costs, and generate repeatable outcomes.
Ahead of Hannover Messe, one of the world's largest manufacturing innovation events, Microsoft is introducing new AI and data for manufacturers to help enable innovation, enable intelligent factories, optimize operations, and improve employee productivity. Present your solution. Manufacturing has been incredibly resilient over the past decade, and the introduction of new AI solutions represents a significant transformation in this important industry.
Unleash innovation with data and AI to power the next generation of intelligent factories
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, manufacturing is one of the most data-intensive industries, generating an average of 1.9 petabytes worldwide each year. And most of this data goes unused, leaving many valuable insights untapped. According to Gartner® Research, “Generative AI transforms manufacturing to a level never before available by providing new insights and recommendations based on data and actionable information.”[1] In this age of AI, data continues to grow in importance as organizations realize they have only just scratched the surface of the possibilities.
Today, we're announcing a private preview to help customers take advantage of data and insights. Microsoft Fabric Manufacturing Data Solution and CoPilot Template for Factory Operations on Azure AI. These solutions help manufacturers integrate operational technology and information technology (IT) data assets to accelerate and scale data transformation for AI on Fabric, an end-to-end analytics SaaS-based platform. The CoPilot template for factory operations helps manufacturers leverage integrated data to create their own CoPilot for frontline employees. Frontline workers can use natural language to query data for knowledge discovery, training, problem solving, asset maintenance, and more. For example, if a plant manager at a factory wants to know why a machine breaks down, he can ask the co-pilot for insight and resolve the problem in days instead of weeks.
As part of a private preview, Intertape Polymer Group (IPG) uses Sight Machine's manufacturing data platform to continuously transform data generated by factory equipment into a robust data foundation for analyzing and modeling machines, production processes, and final products. IPG currently uses Sight Machine's Factory CoPilot. It is a generative AI platform with an intuitive natural language chat interface powered by Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing and the CoPilot template for factory operations on Azure AI. This tool enables teams to quickly gather insights and direct work on production lines that previously operated like black boxes. Instead of working with manual spreadsheets and inaccessible data, all teammates, including production, engineering, procurement, and finance, have better information to drive decisions about products and processes across the factory. availability increases yields and reduces inventory levels.
Even in private preview, bridgestone partners with Avanade to address production challenges head-on, focusing on critical issues related to production disruptions and schedule inefficiencies, including yield losses that can lead to quality issues. Bridgestone, working with Avanade as a private preview customer, aims to leverage the power of Fabric Manufacturing Data His solutions and CoPilot His templates for factory operations. Their goal is to implement a natural language query system that allows front-line employees with varying levels of experience to gain insights that lead to faster problem resolution. The team is excited to establish a centralized system that efficiently collects and presents critical information from a variety of sources to facilitate informed decision-making and enhance functionality. Operational agility across Bridgestone's production ecosystem.
Build more resilient operations and supply chains
To achieve the level of scale and integration that allows manufacturers to accelerate industrial transformation across all operations, they need to build a robust data strategy from the cloud to the shop floor. However, collecting OT data and integrating that data into multiple solutions is not an easy task for manufacturers. Production is complex, with a huge variety of sensors, machines and systems. Each site is unique, and ensuring the right data is shared with the right people at the right time can be cumbersome and costly. Unfortunately, these scale and integration hurdles prevent companies from extending AI solutions to all manufacturing sites or gaining global visibility across all sites.
With this in mind, Microsoft recently Adaptive cloud approachinclude Azure IoT operations. Our Adaptive Cloud is a framework for modernizing edge infrastructure across operations, including factories, and leveraging modern, configurable, connected architectures for applications. Our adaptive cloud approach creates the level of scale needed to iterate AI solutions across production lines and job sites. Taking an adaptive cloud approach, Azure IoT Operations leverages open standards and works with Microsoft Fabric to create a common data foundation for IT and OT collaboration. Visit the Azure blog to learn more about adaptive cloud approaches and Azure IoT operations.
Microsoft customer Electrolux Group has developed a single platform to build, deploy, and manage several key manufacturing use cases to improve global operational efficiency. The goal of the company's platform is to capture all manufacturing data, contextualize it, and make it available for real-time decision-making across all levels of an organization within a scalable infrastructure. To enable this, Electrolux Group employs a full-stack solution from Microsoft that leverages an adaptive cloud approach, including Azure IoT Operations. Electrolux Group uses this approach to reduce overhead from multiple vendors, provide a consistent and easy way to deploy and manage multiple use cases on a site, and support them through simple and consistent fleet management. We aim to make our solution scalable to multiple sites.
Supply chain disruptions are not new. However, the complexity and rate of change are outpacing the organization's ability to address the problem. Manufacturers are under pressure to prevent and minimize disruptions, and as a result, nearly 90% of supply chain professionals plan to invest in ways to make their supply chains more resilient. To support our customers, we are announcing a preview of the following traceability add-ins. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management This allows companies to increase visibility of their product tree through various stages of the supply chain. Traceability also helps companies track events and attributes throughout the supply chain process and provides an interface for querying and analyzing data.
Empower frontline workers with AI tools to increase productivity and job satisfaction
An empowered and connected workforce is key to enabling intelligent factory operations. According to the latest Job Trends Index, 63% of frontline workers perform repetitive or menial tasks that free up their time for more meaningful work. Furthermore, 80% of frontline workers believe that AI will enhance their ability to find the right information and answers they need. From the office to the factory floor to the field, we help manufacturers streamline frontline operations, enhance communication and collaboration, improve the employee experience, and strengthen security across shared devices. We build solutions that address unique challenges.
Today we're introducing the following new features: Copilot for Dynamics 365 Field Service It helps service managers and technicians efficiently find information, resolve issues, and summarize work while keeping customers informed every step of the way. Generally available, field service managers can interact with Copilot to find relevant information about work orders using natural language in work flows in the Dynamics 365 Field Service web app. Additionally, now available in public preview, field workers can configure and customize the fields that their Copilot uses to generate summaries within Dynamics 365 Field Service.
To further streamline collaboration between field service managers, technicians, and remote experts, Dynamics 365 Field Service users can Field Service app in Teams You can now share a link to your work order, and the work order will automatically expand to show important details. This feature is generally available starting today. When a technician needs additional assistance from a remote expert to resolve an issue, use anchored spatial annotations to use Dynamics 365 Remote Assist in a Microsoft Teams work flow, even when the camera moves. Easy access to features.
Microsoft ecosystem and partnerships in the age of AI
These new industry innovations in data and AI are powered through Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing. This enables organizations to accelerate their data and AI initiatives by powering the Microsoft Cloud with industry-relevant data solutions, application templates, and AI services. Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing leverages the best of Microsoft and our partners to jointly accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing.
Microsoft is a trusted co-innovation partner committed to working with businesses to unlock the true potential of AI solutions and transform industries. Our products can also be customized with an unparalleled global ecosystem of trusted partners. This year, we are honored to have the following valued partners demo at our booth at Hannover Messe: Accenture, Annata, Ansys, Avanade, AVEVA, Blue Yonder, Bosch, CapGemini, Cognite, Connected Cars DK, DSA , HERE Technologies, Hexagon, Netstar, NVIDIA, o9 Solutions, PTC, Rockwell Automation, SAP, Syntax, Sight Machine, Siemens, SymphonyAI, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Threedy, ToolsGroup, and Tulip Interfaces.
We look forward to seeing you at the Microsoft booth in Hall 17 Stand G06. Take guided tours and speak with manufacturing and industry experts from around the world.
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[1] Gartner®, GenAI Use Case Prism for Manufacturing, Ellen Eichhorn, Sohard Aggarwal, July 2023. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and abroad and is used herein with permission. . All rights reserved.
