Manufacturing is doing well.
Challenges within the industry have been widely reported, but supply chain issues largely related to the pandemic, geopolitical tensions, and material shortages have lingered. In a recent survey by the National Association of Manufacturers, manufacturing executives cited attracting and retaining a quality workforce as a top challenge. And earlier this year, Deloitte said in its 2024 Manufacturing Outlook that it expects manufacturing to also face economic uncertainty due to net-zero emissions targets and “the need for product innovation” to meet customer needs.
But in the face of these challenges, manufacturers are investing in technology, particularly artificial intelligence, to empower their workforce and transform their operations.
Latest statistics from Deloitte’s Manufacturing Outlook 2024 highlight the level of this digital transformation, with over 70% of manufacturers surveyed saying they have integrated technologies such as data analytics and cloud computing into their processes. Nearly half are now harnessing the power of the Internet of Things sensors, devices and systems, and 76% are adopting digital tools to increase transparency in their supply chains.
“The market is undergoing a period of major transformation, marked by the rapid integration of advanced technologies and an increased focus on data-driven decision-making,” said Alfonso Rodriguez, director of product marketing for manufacturing at Microsoft. “This evolution is especially evident as companies manage the vast amounts of data coming from machines, sensors, enterprise systems and human interactions. Yet the full potential of this data is often not realized due to fragmentation and a lack of interoperability, resulting in siloed information that hampers operational agility and innovation.”
This is also reflected in the “Modernizing Industrial Software for the AI(R) Revolution” report published by ARC Advisory Group in April 2024. The report states, “Most industrial organizations have integrated enterprise software such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, product lifecycle management, and supply chain management. Yet, many companies’ factory and production software environments remain fragmented. This fragmentation creates silos of data, process, and productivity, creating barriers to the opportunities that the AI revolution brings.”
There are strategies manufacturers can employ to address this challenge that are all centered around data and include adopting a smart factory approach, leveraging the opportunities presented by the industrial metaverse, and exploring the potential that generative AI can offer.
“Integrating operational technology (OT) and information technology data offers many benefits, including maximizing the value of factory data, unlocking insights for production optimization, and accelerating innovation,” Rodriguez said. “This integration streamlines insight generation and frees up resources for other strategic initiatives, which are essential in addressing labor shortages, increasing production demands, and the urgent need to reduce costs and carbon emissions.”
This view on the importance of data integration is shared in the ARC report: “Data and process silos can hinder an organization’s efficiency and effectiveness. By integrating product roadmaps, vendors can ensure that different software solutions work together seamlessly to provide a unified, streamlined experience for customers. This not only improves operational efficiency but also accelerates digital transformation efforts.”
Microsoft and its partners are at the forefront of this evolution, delivering manufacturing data solutions with Microsoft Fabric and innovative co-pilot templates for factory operations with Azure AI. These solutions are designed to consolidate IT and OT data into a secure, unified data platform, enriched with semantic context, and ready for AI applications.
“Azure AI’s Copilot templates transform factory operations by facilitating conversational data queries, streamlining communications and making teams more responsive,” said Rodriguez. “This innovation is critical in today’s market, where manufacturers must address labor shortages, increasing production demands and the urgent need to reduce costs and carbon emissions.”
The Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing partner ecosystem is bursting with innovation, and this collaboration is critical to bringing together data from disparate systems, creating custom experiences that fit manufacturers’ specific needs, and helping customers get the most out of their factory data to drive their digital transformation.
Accenture and Avanade developed Avanade Manufacturing Copilot, which integrates with Fabric’s manufacturing data solutions to drive innovation, operational efficiency and data-driven decision-making. Sight Machine’s manufacturing data platform powers Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing by optimizing global production schedules and providing a conversational query experience. Litmus Edge’s advanced DataOps platform accelerates data extraction, normalization and modeling and combines with Fabric to form a hybrid infrastructure from edge to cloud. And,
The collaboration with AVEVA will expand the Industrial AI Assistant, which integrates and contextualizes production execution and supply chain planning data within Fabric.
These investments will bring about a significant change in the manufacturing landscape, which is supported by the results of the 2023 Industrial Metaverse Study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Leadership Council, which details that executives expect industrial metaverse initiatives to boost labor productivity by more than 12%.
“The potential impact of Microsoft’s manufacturing data solution and Copilot template for factory operations with Azure AI is far-reaching,” says Rodriguez. “Integrating IT and OT data from various sources into a secure platform breaks down data silos and gives manufacturers a holistic view of their operations that they never before saw. This holistic view is key for a variety of key use cases, including actual vs. design analysis, root cause analysis, production efficiency analysis, guided asset management, workforce upskilling and waste reduction.”
Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides is essential for preserving knowledge. “It provides employees with an interactive, transformative learning experience,” says Rodriguez. “It creates an engaging environment where employees can interact with holograms and get AI-driven guidance, speeding up the learning process and improving problem-solving skills in the workplace. The tool is integrated with IoT sensors and service records to provide critical real-time data and historical insights that ease the diagnostic process and eliminate the need for manual document searches.”
Knowledge preservation is a key feature of Copilot, capturing expertise from previous interactions to coach new employees and ensure that important information is effectively stored and shared within the organization. Copilot also makes documentation easy and allows employees to use voice to interact with the system, speeding up service tasks, recording updates, and reducing paperwork.
“Microsoft solutions provide employees with access to operational insights and advanced analytics to improve the employee experience,” says Rodriguez. “By combining IT and OT data, employees can use actionable insights to optimize production, improving decision-making and increasing productivity. Manufacturing data solutions provide faster analytics, allowing quick access to contextualized data, reducing the time required for complex tasks like root cause analysis from weeks to hours.”
“Using conversational AI through Azure AI’s Copilot templates allows employees to communicate with complex systems using natural language, making them easier to communicate and more responsive. This not only improves the user experience, but also creates a more agile and informed workforce.”
“These solutions enable knowledge transfer, allowing insights and expertise to be shared effectively between teams, which is particularly important in ensuring continuity and retaining employees, especially as we face reduced workforces.”
Partner Perspective
We asked select Microsoft partners how our suite of cloud-based tools is helping manufacturers improve employee experience, increase productivity and meet customer expectations.
“Manufacturers can leverage Microsoft’s suite of cloud-based tools to improve employee experience, increase productivity and meet customer expectations,” said Hank Norris, director of Microsoft strategic partnerships at Ansys. “Leveraging Ansys Access on Azure, they can rapidly deploy simulations using cutting-edge high-performance computing configurations, overcoming hardware barriers.”
“AvaTax for Dynamics 365 Business Central allows manufacturers to benefit from accounts payable functionality right within their workflow,” said Eric Carrasco, senior product marketing manager at Avalara. “The AvaTax for accounts payable solution calculates accounts payable taxes on purchase orders and purchase invoices,
Determine the amount or tax rate/percentage charged by the vendor, verify the journal entry created in the tax accrual, and post the journal entry to the general ledger.
“By integrating Microsoft’s cloud-based tools with MetaViewer’s cloud-based accounts payable automation, manufacturers can automate invoice processing and reduce manual data entry and errors,” says Andy Birkey, marketing communications specialist at Metafile Information Systems. “This streamlines workflow and allows employees to focus on higher-value tasks, improving morale and efficiency.”
“You’re ready to improve productivity, customer satisfaction, employee safety and overall business performance, but is your operational technology data accessible and ready to go?” says Will Knight, vice president of partnerships at Litmus. “Through deep integration with Azure services, Litmus transforms plant floor data into a strategic asset for the entire enterprise.”
To learn more about these partners, check out Technology Record’s Summer 2024 issue. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.
