- [Narrator] Digi-Key presents Factory Tomorrow,
a series of videos exploring the latest innovations
in industrial automation across robotics, sensors,
connectivity, artificial intelligence,
and the people behind the latest technologies
that are shaping the future of manufacturing.
- Do you know where your assets are on the factory floor?
Do you know what is happening with those assets
at any points?
- With the application of AI and IoT,
factories will be more connected than ever.
- [Narrator] Powered by Banner Engineering,
Weidmuller, and Supplyframe.
In this episode, we look at how artificial intelligence
can unlock the true potential of IoT and Edge applications
across the factory floor and beyond.
First, we sit down with Jan Jongboom, Co-founder and CTO
at Edge Impulse, who expands upon the importance
of making machine learning technology more accessible
on the factory floor,
through the application of Edge devices.
- So, Edge Impulse makes an impact
by bringing some intelligence to devices
and manufacturing options that you'd see on a factory floor.
I think the really hard part of manufacturing
and being in a factory, is that it's a very harsh RF
environment, very hard to deploy anything,
very hard to get raw data from the sensors.
And Edge Impulse lets you gather that sensor data
and analyze that in real time, directly on the machines.
And that gives you much lower latency,
better insight in what is happening on those machines.
Machine learning lets you find those rules
by just providing the input and the desired outputs.
So, it's just a different way of writing your control.
There's a slow evolution of assisting the plant workers
in what they're doing.
So, I think that a lot of the quality control things
that are currently done by hand,
that machines can start helping there,
in much more general purposes.
So, we have lots of very specialized machines
that can do quality assurance or back things.
I think machine learning,
especially because machine learning
lets you add eyes and ears to your devices,
things that are normally done by humans
and you can transform that really nice to the digital world.
So, I think that a lot of things were,
is this screw screwed in? Yes or no?
That is something that a machine
will be able to start assisting very quickly.
And that is something that was never possible.
So both, by being able to run much more complex models,
machine learning models, have them work better,
and kind of be tailored to the specific factory
that they're being deployed at,
I think that is going to be a really big win.
- [Narrator] Richard Savoie shares his perspective
on AI's role in the supply chain
and how the application of digital twins
unlocks new forms of efficiency in real time.
- One of the things at a high-level
about the manufacturing industry
and especially just across supply chain,
companies tend to spend around 6% of their revenue
on efficiency improvements every year.
Even companies that are very digital
and have invested a lot in architecture and infrastructure.
And so, one of the innovations that is happening
across industry, and one of the ones
that we are helping to lead is around,
what we call digital twinning.
By looking into these different stacks of software,
databases, workforce management systems, execution systems,
you have access to how the data flows through
and represents real materials and real processes.
The key is allowing the machine learning models
to then map those movements of processes,
people, and things through those systems
to create a representation of how they move
in the real world, based on their data.
Most companies don't have that.
They don't have the ability to proactively plan
for how they're gonna prevent a bottleneck
in a manufacturing center.
They're highly reactive, rather than proactive.
So, it's just a perfect opportunity for machine learning
to disrupt something that is both, super high-value
and also an enabler of so many other cool things.
- [Narrator] Heidi Fehlhaber, Customer Insights Analyst
at Digi-Key Electronics, describes her experience
with helping customers discover solutions
around industrial IoT technologies,
bringing enhanced connectivity to the entire factory floor.
- Companies are creating value with IIoT
by speeding up their processing time.
It is estimated that it costs a company
about $5 a square foot to store materials.
By going from raw material to finished product faster,
they are able to increase their bottom line.
When I think of smart factories, I think of the future.
If you're not moving forward, you're not moving at all.
- [Narrator] Andrew Barco, the Director
of Automated Products and Solutions at Weidmuller,
illustrates the connection between machine learning
and robotics, allowing for flexible and adaptive automation.
- How do you pull in data simply and easily and faster?
Speed and time is always of essence. (laughs)
As automation goes through, the more I/O you have coming in,
you can actually store office information within an HPC
or within the POC, and allow these devices
to make the decisions.
Also, look at it from a predictive side of things,
how many you're turning on, how many you're turning off,
and how much longer can I go without having to need a break?
That decision-making capability can actually be taken away
from the human, which means,
not there's gonna be less humans,
it's less interaction that is required
with the automation system.
- [Narrator] The intersection of real-time data
and AI technologies creates numerous avenues for insight
into the factory floor, along with exciting evolutions
in predictive maintenance and supply chain automation.
The application of new sensors, transformed robotics,
and unique hybrids like IoT and AI,
are all contributing towards this evolution.
Enhanced intelligence, connected automation,
superior efficiency.
This is Factory Tomorrow.
(upbeat techno music)