AI and the State of Production Health 2024
Illustration: © AI For All
The manufacturing industry, and production processes in particular, face wide-ranging challenges and competing demands that impact performance, efficiency, and resilience.
By tracking and trending these shifts, Augury’s latest State of Production Health report will help you measure and understand your organization’s status among peers and potential opportunities for improvement.
This year’s report, which builds on the 2023 inaugural baseline study, reveals the hurdles, progress, and promise of strategies reported by more than 700 manufacturing leaders working at companies with an annual revenue of at least $100M.
For example, addressing common concerns with advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) is proving to be an effective, scalable strategy with operational and economic advantages.
Prominent Findings
Artificial Intelligence Proves Its Worth
Investments in AI continue to rise as manufacturers realize its benefits and begin quantifying its value. As confidence in AI grows and the ability to scale programs improves, they can address other challenges and reallocate their workforce to new priorities.
With the increasing prevalence and maturity of AI applications in manufacturing, three new options were added to the question of how manufacturers are using AI. One of them, improving decision-making with prescriptive analytics, already ranks first at 45 percent, likely reflecting users transitioning from learning about data to learning what actions are recommended based on the data.
Ultimately, prescriptive analytics improves upon the value derived by AI in areas such as supply chain management/ optimization, overall production health, and tracking energy consumption — the three top responses in 2023 — as well as improving machine health/reducing downtime, which ranks third this year at 38 percent.
Supply Chain and Capacity Opportunities Gain Focus
Manufacturers are realistic about what is to come, including 90 percent agreeing to some extent that supply chain disruptions are expected to become more frequent over the next 12 months. They are now shifting spend to address these supply chain and capacity concerns.
Interestingly, although manufacturers rank the supply chain as the top production obstacle (25 percent), a top area where AI is used (43 percent), and the top area where AI’s impact is quantifiable (41 percent), it is surprisingly their lowest ranked objective for leveraging AI.
This may be because manufacturers believe their existing investment in the supply chain is working and/or manufacturers have not yet realized the impact of the technology on their supply chain. Regardless, increasing capacity is now the number one objective for leveraging AI, at 44 percent.
Workforce Concerns Persist but See Some Improvement
For manufacturers struggling with an aging workforce and skilled-talent gap, the advent of technologies such as AI provided welcome relief — so much so that in 2023, the top objective for leveraging AI was to upskill the workforce (25 percent).
Today, one year later, the ranking of workforce constraints and upskilling as a concern has shifted, and the emphasis on investment in this area is decreasing. With near-unanimous agreement (97 percent strongly agree, agree, or somewhat agree) that AI and advanced technologies will help create new jobs in the manufacturing industry, shifting money to areas like capacity may further mitigate resource issues by enabling AI-driven automation and workflow improvements.
Looking Ahead
This report summarizes these and other 2024 research findings and highlights key comparisons to 2023 results, helping manufacturers benchmark their capabilities and objectives and develop future-focused strategies aligned to optimize production health.
As manufacturers look toward the future — and specifically toward improving production health — those who have yet to embrace IoT connectivity and AI solutions need to do so immediately. Those who have already found success should expand those investments to better visualize and act on the data that connects machines, processes, and operations.
This is foundational to the ability to meet production objectives while overcoming what they say are today’s key challenges, such as capacity constraints, supply chain issues, workforce concerns, and equipment reliability and efficiency.
Manufacturing
Industrial AI
AI for Business
Author
A leader in Machine Health and Process Health solutions, Augury uses purpose-built AI technology, trained by industry experts and the world’s largest data library, to help manufacturing and industrial companies eliminate production downtime, improve process efficiency, maximize yield, and reduce waste and emissions. Our global customers achieve 3-10x ROI, often in a matter of months. Augury operates in a variety of manufacturing sectors such as food, beverage, CPG (consumer packaged goods), pulp and paper, forest products, chemicals, building materials, and pharmaceuticals as well as in the energy market.
Author
A leader in Machine Health and Process Health solutions, Augury uses purpose-built AI technology, trained by industry experts and the world’s largest data library, to help manufacturing and industrial companies eliminate production downtime, improve process efficiency, maximize yield, and reduce waste and emissions. Our global customers achieve 3-10x ROI, often in a matter of months. Augury operates in a variety of manufacturing sectors such as food, beverage, CPG (consumer packaged goods), pulp and paper, forest products, chemicals, building materials, and pharmaceuticals as well as in the energy market.
