Rodrigo Alonso Salas Musso knows that most people are aware of the first industrial revolution, where coal replaced steam power and manpower. Likewise, anyone could probably guess that electricity, gas, and oil powered the second industrial revolution and made factory owners into millionaires.
We are well into the third industrial revolution, where nuclear energy has been mastered, and digital and electronic computing are manufacturing automation’s predominant drivers. Today, products and processes are made faster with unmatched repeatable and of higher quality with less human input due to robotics, digital interfaces, and automated machinery.
But, what many may not be aware of, says Rodrigo Alonso Salas Musso, is the fourth industrial revolution that the manufacturing world is currently attempting to usher in – and that is the use of the Internet and renewable energy to supplant older technologies. Part of this new wave of internet technology includes artificial Intelligence or AI, where computer-aided machines learn from past mistakes, think about the current issues, then solve those problems to implement better processes using machines, materials, and manpower.
Rodrigo Alonso Salas Musso knows the statistics that state:
“AI can vastly improve predictive maintenance on industrial equipment to prevent downtown in operations and is proficiently decreasing production time by up to 90%, effectively improving the efficiency of an entire manufacturing operation in just minutes.”
A 90% reduction in production time is a significant number! No other industrial revolution has caused such an improvement in the speed, quality, and cost of manufacturing as that which is currently seen with AI-powered industrial machinery.
So, will the lights go out in factories powered by robotics and AI? That was the worry when factory automation first began, and Rodrigo Alonso Salas Musso does not believe that will be the case in this fourth revolution of industrial processes.
But, what will change is a 30-50% decrease in machine downtime so that workers will feel confident in completing their daily tasks or quotas. Also, expect a 10-30% increase in manufacturing throughput, which is the time it takes for raw materials to be converted into finished goods.
Industrial workers may witness a 15-30% decrease in manual productivity, the energy used by or the number of manual operations required for a person to complete an industrial workflow. Less work for employees, with higher pay, and cleaner factories is certainly a plus for the industrial workforce.
As for corporations, scrap and low-quality production are a common source of inefficiency and lost profits, AI-powered industrial engineering may reduce quality-related losses by up to 20%. And better products mean happier customers that are loyal to a brand.
Rodrigo Alonso Salas Musso believes the role of AI in industrial engineering will be directly responsible for the making of the futuristic-style living environment that we often see represented on television and in movies. Only by the high computing power, learning, and thinking of artificial intelligence can we overcome the physical constraints to manufacture the products we need to sustain life without polluting the air, killing wildlife, or devastating our waterways – all while eliminating greenhouse gas emissions.