As Doritos, Walkers and Wotsits speed along a conveyor belt at Coventry’s PepsiCo factory – where some of the UK’s most popular crisps are made – the noise of whirring machinery is almost deafening.
However, in this case, it is not any old human workers looking for sign of breakdown beyond all the noise of the factory.
In addition, sensors connected to different elements of devices also listen for cues on hardware flaws, having learnt what old and tired machines sound like that threaten to stop production lines completely.
After a successful USA trial, these sensors created by tech company Augury and fueled with artificial intelligence are being deployed by PepsiCo across its factories.
One of the companies trying out ways AI may help boost factory efficiency without wastage or delays before retail shelf is one such example from what are increasingly seen as a wave of new manufacturing.
The large quantities of data that it can handle has already made its mark in helping manufacturers in preemptive measures against disruptive tendencies.
Factory downtime for a single period of one minute could run into tens of thousands in lost earnings. Additionally, if additional delays lead to missed opportunities during special times such as Christmas or even during Black Friday then some consumers may miss their window of purchase.
Therefore, monitoring devices are increasingly commonplace on factory floors, capable of checking and examining processes in real time; anticipating forthcoming problems and exploiting recorded history to suggest corrective measures.For instance, the sensors applied by PepsiCo have been trained on vast amounts of sound data in
“Today we analyse and monitor more than 300 million machine hours and we are able to exploit all that data to devise algorithms capable of locating particular failure patterns”, said Augury’s CEO, Saar Yoskovitz.
In simple terms, factories are using smart technology to gather information about the health of their machines. This helps workers predict when a machine might break down, allowing them to schedule maintenance beforehand and prevent unexpected errors. Using AI-powered sensors also helps reduce waste in the production process.
For instance, AI technology like computer vision is being employed to identify defects in products as they move along conveyor belts in factories. This is especially crucial for intricate items like computer chips, where tiny defects might be overlooked by the human eye. AI, through cameras and algorithms, can spot these defects and ensure better product quality.
According to Alexandra Brintrup, a professor at the University of Cambridge, AI is not only improving efficiency in manufacturing but also opening up new possibilities. These include sharing production capacities between manufacturers, enhancing visibility in supply chains, and even optimizing logistics, like sharing trucks.
One significant use of AI is in unraveling the complexities of supply chains. By analyzing and predicting suppliers’ information, companies can identify bottlenecks, and consumers can gain insights into the origins and materials used in products. For example, AI can help track the use of ingredients like palm oil, even when disguised under different names on product labels. This transparency is crucial as society becomes more environmentally and socially conscious.
In summary, AI is revolutionizing manufacturing by making processes more efficient, improving product quality, and increasing transparency in the supply chain.
This is especially true as it refers to the manufacturing landscape where they ask themselves what implications the increasing use of AI tools on factory floors and other places within the wider supply chain will have for workers.
Consequently, some companies examine the implementation of AI in monitoring the security of production line workers who are around machines with machine-learning and computer vision techniques by analyzing factory cameras’ footage.
In the meantime, companies such as PepsiCo are deploying wearables powered by artificial intelligence across warehouses in Britain in a bid to avoid injuries among the employees who are repeatedly tasked with carrying heavy loads. David Schwartz, PepsiCo’s global vice president at
He said “it’s improving how people work, so we may give more efficiency for our people, or customers and get ready to face up the future to provide them services on a day to day basis”.
Will the emerging use of AI devices in factories and elsewhere in the supply chain mean anything to workers?
A few firms are examining ways through which artificial intelligence can be used for enhancing safety of production line workers in close proximity of machines – by applying machine learning, and computer vision approaches to monitor the manufacturing facility’s camera video feed to find likely accidents, risks, etc.
On the other hand, AI wearable technologies such as exoskeleton have been rolled out in United Kingdom’s warehouses to prevent those involved in repetitive lifting of bulky materials from suffering overstraining and bodily injury.David Schwartz, PepsiCo Labs
He states: “it is assisting us in improving how people work to achieve more efficiency to serve the people we have, our customers, and prepare us for tomorrow to cater to them every day”.