Focus on First Open Call winners: Human-Centric Operations in Manufacturing SMEs aided by GeneraTive AI

WHAT ABOUT THE EXPERIMENT? 
 

The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the manufacturing market has proved revolutionary, bringing numerous improvements and innovations to the sector. The application of Generative AI (GenAI) may be even more relevant, proving to be an invaluable asset in the context of Industry 5.0 by enabling enhanced collaboration between machines and humans, fostering creativity and personalization, optimizing processes, and facilitating continuous learning and improvement. Generative AI is a technology that responds to natural language questions based on algorithms that are “trained” on large amounts of text/data from across the web. This means that they “understand” terminology, concepts, and relationships between concepts to such a degree that they are able to create a response that sounds as if it came from a human. The potential diversion arises from the ease with which Generative AI can generate false or misleading information especially when used in a specific domain (such as manufacturing companies expertise) where knowledge of Large Language Models (LLMs)-powered application is lacking, as responses are based on patterns learned by ingesting public information (which is necessary in order to get the required large volumes of training content). But what an organization wants to use Generative AI on its internal information/knowledge. Therefore, the goal of COMMIT experiment is to integrate Generative AI models with existing knowledge of the SME company, unlocking a whole new level of functionality to improve its manufacturing operations by supporting a human-centric workforce experience. This will be done by implementing a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) approach tailored to the operative and maintenance operations within manufacturing companies. RAG is an architectural approach that improves the efficacy of Generative LLMs applications by leveraging custom data. This is done by retrieving data/documents relevant to a question or task (that in this case is e.g. related to maintenance tasks) and providing them as context for the LLMs.

​

WHAT IS THE EXPECTED IMPACT?  
 

Organizations are now turning to Generative AI (GenAI) and edge-computing solutions to navigate the rapidly evolving tech landscape. This new industrial revolution will focus more on societal value than economic value and the well-being of the human workforce. In particular, COMMIT will provide a workflow where humans will work alongside advanced manufacturing technologies such as AI-powered assistant to carry out operations and processes across industries. In particular, GenAI-based tools and low-code technology exploit in COMMIT can unlock numerous opportunities while using them in tandem, namely:
• Streamlined manufacturing process: COMMIT solution provides real-time assistance on manufacturing operations, such a maintenance tasks. Specifically, embracing COMMIT tool can save an average of 20-30% of operations time, allowing organizations to optimize their production.
• Compliance with best practices: COMMIT solution assists teams to work in conformity with manufacturing/maintenance best practices. This proactive support simplifies the human tasks resulting in safer and more effective approach.
• Optimized use of resources: and increased efficiency will reduce manufacturer costs.