Ready-made AI models: The next industrial revolution in manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is at a fascinating crossroads, brimming with potential for groundbreaking advancements. We find ourselves in an era of unprecedented data surges, intricate supply chain networks and a relentless drive to innovate.

This dynamic environment, now known as Industry 4.0 – 5.0, has cultivated a fertile ground where AI can step in to deliver business value on a scale previously unimagined.

AI adoption and barriers to entry

The exciting promise of AI has often been tempered by the significant hurdles associated with its actual implementation. The prospect of building bespoke AI solutions from the ground up can be formidable, demanding highly specialized skills frequently in short supply within organizations.

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into the core operational fabric of manufacturing, critical questions surrounding trust and responsible AI inevitably rise to the forefront.

Ensuring that these sophisticated AI systems operate with transparency, provide explainable outcomes and adhere to stringent ethical principles is a desirable attribute. It’s also a fundamental necessity for widespread adoption and realizing AI’s full transformative potential. Without this foundation of trust and responsibility, the journey towards an AI-driven manufacturing future risks encountering significant resistance and failing to deliver on its promises.

Ready-made AI models for manufacturing

How can manufacturing organizations access AI faster with less risk? SAS^® Document Analysis and SAS® Strategic Supply Chain Optimization models are two robust AI solutions that encapsulate decades of SAS’ deep-rooted, industry-leading expertise in advanced analytics and AI. These models offer manufacturers an accelerated pathway to achieving tangible and impactful results.

By tailoring our approach to understanding specific industry needs, our frameworks empower businesses to flourish in their distinctive environments and drive more innovation.
Udo Sglavo, Applied AI and Modeling R&D, SAS

A deeper dive into capabilities

Imagine the sheer volume of knowledge currently locked away in critical business documents such as invoices, detailed quality control reports, comprehensive maintenance logs and intricate supplier agreements.

Consider SAS Document Analysis, a solution that streamlines and revolutionizes how manufacturers handle the vast amounts of information embedded within unstructured documents.

SAS Document Analysis offers a powerful solution that empowers manufacturers to enhance the analysis of these previously underutilized unstructured data sources. This intelligent document processing pipeline automates the complex process of converting scanned document images into readily usable structured text data.

This means the valuable information trapped within these documents can finally be liberated and made accessible for meaningful analysis.

SAS Document Analysis offers substantial efficiency gains. By optimizing the batch processing of large volumes of scanned documents, manufacturers can effectively manage the constant influx of paperwork that is a hallmark of their operations.

This automated processing saves considerable time and resources and reduces the potential for human error inherent in manual data entry and review processes.

Furthermore, to ensure optimal performance across diverse document types and qualities, the model offers the flexibility to select from multiple third-party Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engines – technology that converts scanned images or PDFs into machine-readable text – providing manufacturers with the adaptability needed to achieve high accuracy in text extraction. This adaptability ensures the extracted data is reliable and fit for downstream analysis.

Read more about our cross-industry approach to ready-made AI models

A more strategic supply chain

The intricate nature of modern manufacturing supply chains demands intelligent solutions that can adapt effectively to disruptions and optimize operations across all critical stages, including purchasing, production, transportation, inventory management and sales.

The SAS Strategic Supply Chain Optimization model is designed to help manufacturers optimize their end-to-end supply chain planning for enhanced resilience and overall efficiency.

SAS Strategic Supply Chain Optimization provides manufacturers with a complete and highly flexible model specifically designed to optimally and simultaneously solve the crucial supply planning portion of the broader supply chain function.

At its core, the model provides key decision-making support for the entire end-to-end supply chain, with the overarching goal of best meeting fluctuating customer demand. This includes providing optimized recommendations for purchasing, production, logistics and distribution, inventory, and even sales decisions.

What sets this model apart is its unique ability to respond most effectively to a wide range of fluctuations and unforeseen disruptions across the entire supply chain. It achieves this by using mathematical optimization techniques to intelligently balance critical factors such as costs and various operational constraints to meet established sales goals consistently.

With this, manufacturers can quickly and accurately estimate the potential financial and operational impacts of various scenarios, such as sudden shifts in customer demand, unexpected labor constraints, limitations in manufacturing capacity and the scarcity of critical suppliers.

The model is engineered to be fast, lightweight and remarkably simple to integrate, allowing it to complement existing supply chain technology investments rather than necessitating a costly and disruptive complete system overhaul.

It is a standalone model that includes all the necessary run-time requirements, meaning that SAS® Viya® is not strictly required to run it. This helps manufacturers with diverse technological infrastructures to benefit from the model’s powerful optimization capabilities as it operates independently of existing platforms or services.

Bringing it all together

These powerful, ready-made AI models are strategically designed to complement the robust and comprehensive capabilities of the SAS Viya platform and the broader portfolio of solutions offered to the manufacturing industry.