Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence or automated reasoning is the next step towards implementing more efficient factories. “ … AMR Research Inc. in Boston estimates that 40% of all new manufacturing- related software now incorporates some form of AI” (Port, 2000). In
the near-distant future all manufacturing will become digitized. Supply chains are already converting software to “smart modules” that communicate with each other. Embedded web servers are in many new devices purchased for plant operations allowing machinery to relay data to computers on the Internet. Collaboration will allow manufacturers to respond to initial customer reactions to products and increase service levels.

The “lights out factory” is a longterm goal of factory automation proponents. Port (2001) found that the newest machine tools from Milacron Inc. have “learning engines” and Gensym Corp. has software neural networks capable of comprehending intricate manufacturing procedures. Future factory production will be substantially efficient due to the inherent speed of new programs and machine tools. Today’s manufacturers need to examine and update factory applications to be competitive with future factories.