Accessible AI on the shop floor
Without a doubt, AI-powered technology has helped many manufacturers flourish in this decade; so much so, that it is set to continually bring factories to the next level of digital value. Even in this age of “AI first” frameworks, it is important to acknowledge that there are different maturity levels on the shop floor when it comes to digitalization, IoT, and data. Ideally, AI-driven solutions should reflect this reality.
In the third episode of industrial machinery and AI series in Siemens’ Digital Transformation podcast, the existing gaps in digital maturity among manufacturers was discussed. Host Chris Pennington, global industry marketing leader for industrial machinery, along with Rahul Garg, Vice President for industrial machinery vertical software strategy, spoke with Ralph Wagner, Senior Vice President of data-driven Manufacturing on the role of AI and digital transformation in industrial machinery, zeroing in on technologies that address the typical AI user personas and how Siemens tries to cater to their needs.
The three personas
To target the personas within the organization that use AI to its full advantage, Siemens deploys Insights Hub. Utilizing Insights Hub, all skill levels on the shop floor can reap the benefits of data-driven manufacturing, ensuring that organizations can efficiently and effectively use their data—regardless of the individual business’s digital maturity. The three main personas that Insights Hub facilitates shop floor data for are operators, production engineers, and data scientists.
Most manufacturers employ only operators and production engineers. Operators can leverage Insights Hub’s out-of-the-box tools which require no technical expertise. Designed to be simple and intuitive, tools for frontline employees provide transparency into equipment status and key performance indicators while monitoring equipment and enabling predictive maintenance. Meanwhile, engineers with a deeper understanding of machine programming and production processes can use Insights Hub to configure tailor-made tools for quality prediction and process optimization.
And finally, we have the rarest persona: data scientists. Data scientists, the most knowledgeable group, can use Insights Hub to build custom AI models for advanced analytics. Typically, these tools are relatively intricate and require specialized knowledge in data science; as well, only large, digitally mature enterprises with a wealth of resources employ data scientists.
Due to the versatility of Insights Hub, its solutions are suitable for both large businesses and SMBs. SMBs benefit from the low barrier to entry due to its software as service model, eliminates need for heavy on-site infrastructure. Meanwhile, large enterprises can leverage its scalability and easily integrate Insights Hub into their existing systems.
Insightful benefits
Manufacturers that adopt Insights Hub and data-driven manufacturing approaches see more streamlined maintenance processes, improved throughput performance, and even more efficient energy usage. Already, Siemens has seen:
- 30%+ increase in asset availability via predictive maintenance.
- 50–60% reduction in nonconformance costs through AI-driven quality prediction.
- Up to 30% fewer defects due to improved transparency and root cause identification.
- 20%+ performance gains using IoT data in plant simulation models.
- Up to 30% energy savings, with ISO 50001-compliant reporting enabling tax credits.
Additionally, top players in the industry have been able to deploy Insights Hub swiftly and agilely across their global enterprises. Some manufacturers have been able to roll out Insights Hub solutions to 80 plants in 20 countries due to the ease of configuration and integration into already existing systems.
Creating adaptable enterprises
Accessibility is key as AI continues to transform the manufacturing landscape. With this in mind, Siemens designed Insights Hub to cater to everyone on the shop floor regardless of knowledge base. Small manufacturers can take advantage of Insights Hub by leveraging it to increase data transparency and optimize processes. And large companies with data scientists can use it to create custom AI models.
Insights Hub empowers manufacturers of all sizes to transition from reactive to data-driven operations, unlocking significant value in productivity, quality, and sustainability. To learn more about how Insights Hub is helping manufacturers both big and small reach their automation goals, listen to our Digital Transformation podcast.
Siemens Digital Industries Software helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform. Siemens’ software and the comprehensive digital twin enable companies to optimize their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to turn today’s ideas into the sustainable products of the future. From chips to entire systems, from product to process, across all industries. Siemens Digital Industries Software – Accelerating transformation.
