Factories are key in the industrial sector, especially manufacturing. Factory owners are always on the lookout for ways to improve factory processes, with techniques such as the standardization of processes, the use of assembly lines, and automation.
Today, industries are turning to digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) housed in industrial AI box PCs to achieve these same goals.
Increase the Operational Efficiency of Factories
For factories, operation efficiency is how well they process their raw materials into the desired finished products with as little waste as possible. By applying AI to factory automation and cutting-edge technologies like Internet of Things, factories improve operational efficiency by:
- Minimizing or altogether removing repetitive tasks. An example would be building or transferring half-finished products from one assembly line to another by machine instead of by hand.
- Reducing time spent on low-value tasks like manually checking in stock and entering into a computer system. Workers can perform both with a rugged industrial tablet with a built-in RFID scanner.
- Lowering energy consumption. Plants and manufacturing offices may keep lights or non-essential powered equipment left on even when no one uses them. Smart rooms and buildings can sense this lack of use and turn them off automatically.
Overall, greater operational efficiency increases a factory’s business output, production speed, and overall productivity.
Provide Greater Agility and Adaptability to Change
“Agility” is the ability to adapt factory processes to changing markets and demands. Artificial intelligence can aid in doing so thanks to its ability to analyze that vast amounts of data and, most importantly, generate forecasts from them (predictive analytics). Some ways factories use these AI-driven forecasts to be more agile include:
- Demand change optimizes the inventory levels of a factory’s output to what will be demanded by the marketplace. The process reduces factory costs and the waste of resources.
- Dynamic pricing adjusts the pricing of factory resources and products sold to meet company revenue goals. AI-driven predictive analytics used this way aims to keep operations profitable while still providing customers with fair and consistent pricing.
- Predictive maintenance uses tools like digital twins to forecast when factory equipment will need to be fixed or replaced due to wear and tear. Dealing with equipment this way minimizes any effects on normal factory operations and schedules.
Help Make Informed, Data-driven Decisions
Businesses today tailor their strategies sourced from sales figures to customer survey information to barcode scans gathered by rugged mini PCs. AI can aid in several ways in this decision-making process.
- Buying patterns gathered from customers. Factories can then be adapted to build goods based on those patterns, optimizing company supply chains to price the goods sold.
- Workload data makes tasks such as order volumes and processing times are optimal for each employee. AI-provided data also ensures factories are adequately staffed to prevent bottlenecks and delays, especially during peak demand and seasonal fluctuations.
- Defect detection has AI using computer vision to search for product defects and faults on factory production lines. Employees can then remove the product(s). At the same time, management determines the next course of action (e.g., halt production until the error is fixed, whether it’s the production process, the product itself, or a combination of both).
Why Industrial AI Computers are Best for Factories
Factories are punishing environments for electronics. Factory environments like car assembly lines, steel mills, and storage warehouses can quickly play havoc with many PCs’ delicate interiors, if not outright short them out. Factories should equip their facilities with industrial-grade computers like an industrial panel PC with the following features:
- AI-enabled with hardware like an NVIDIA GPU to support machine learning and similar AI programs.
- IEC 60068-rated components to withstand harsh factory conditions from extreme temperatures to intense shock and vibration.
- Power flexibility to handle variable power settings like commercial vehicle ignition.
- Efficient cooling systems to minimize air intake as well as noise.
- Device compatibility through legacy ports to connect to a wide variety of machinery, old and new.
- Mounting options via standard VESA mounts to make placing the PC anywhere in the factory a breeze.
Run Your Factories With AI-Enabled Computers By Cybernet
Factory owners across many industries are always on the lookout to run their factories more efficiently. Artificial intelligence is their latest tool, with the technology being used in everything from predicting equipment failure to efficient employee scheduling.
Reach out to the team at Cybernet Manufacturing if you’re looking at AI to maximize the efficiency of your factories. Our team members will happily cover the numerous features that make our AI-enabled industrial PC lineup the right solution for your industrial operations. And as an Original Equipment and Design Manufacturer, we can further customize our products to meet your factories’ exact requirements.
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