5 Myths About AI Manufacturing Applications

Can artificial intelligence work in manufacturing, and what does it

take to turn myth into reality?
Max Versace
OCT 23, 2019

We’ve come a long way since the introduction of the steam engine in
the 1700s. That invention signaled the start of the first Industrial
Revolution, which was followed by the second (electrification) and,
more recently, by a third (computerization).

Today, we are on the edge of yet another: the fourth industrial

revolution led by automation and artificial intelligence. That said, the
rise of the fourth Industrial Revolution has not been without its own
set of challenges.

Take the manufacturing industry, for example: There is a strong sense

of competitive pressure when it comes to quality. Today, quality
control still relies heavily on human inspections. Aside from being an
expensive, increasingly scarce commodity, human inspectors are no
match for the production rhythms and volumes of industrial
machines. In other words, a technician checking compliance to
production standards of a fleet of machines outputting thousands of
products per day simply cannot keep up—not to mention the risk of
human error. 

As a result, the majority of manufacturers are turning to emerging

technologies such as AI and machine learning to propel them into
Industry 4.0. In fact, 79% are using machine learning specifically to
help automate tasks, because it is just not conceivable that a human
worker can devote the same amount of attention to thousands of
products per day compared to the stamina of machine learning
solutions.

Moreover, machine learning, and in particular neural networks and

deep learning, are prime candidates to be integrated with the existing
workflow and processes, as well as human resources, to enable
persistent quality control, proactive maintenance, and boost overall
quality in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Embracing Industry 4.0 AI (And the Many Ways to Get This
Wrong)
No manufacturer wants to be a dinosaur when it comes to embracing
the AI revolution. Despite the fact that an estimated 80% of
enterprises claim to already be using AI in some form, they “sense” the
challenge. In fact, research shows that 91% of companies foresee
significant barriers to AI adoption due to a lack of IT infrastructure
and a shortage of AI experts.

Very few manufacturers have a clear grasp of what it really takes to

effectively embed AI into complex machines and processes. On top of
that, they’'re tasked with transforming still heavily human-dependent
quality inspection into an AI-powered effort. To help illustrate the
many myths and misunderstandings around the adoption of AI in
Industry 4.0, we’ll use a concrete example of a hypothetical company,
Packaging Global Industries (PGI).

Neurala’s AI can be deployed on the edge with no need for cloud

training.

PGI builds a variety of packaging machines sold to companies in order

to pack items on an industrial level. While these machines vary
according to the type of items in need of packaging (from cosmetics to
food, pharmaceutical, gifts, beverages and more), PGI has an overall
goal to improve quality control and reduce returns/rejects. After an
initial investigation, PGI has launched a corporate-wide initiative
aimed at the deployment of AI-powered quality control in its
machines.

Following the recent rise in AI awareness, coupled with competitive

pressures from other players that are looking into AI, PGI has set an
aggressive roadmap of introducing visual-based AI inspections in their
new machines.

The first step? Collecting pertinent data (mostly, production run

images gathered from cameras already installed in their newest
machines) to train custom vision AI models.

Myth No. 1: All the data to build custom visual AI for quality
control is freely available

The first challenge PGI will face is gathering and preparing data for
training custom visual AI models for quality control. Data is
imperative to AI: Neural networks and deep learning architectures
rely on deriving a function to map input data to output data.
Neurala's Brain Builder dashboard library.

The effectiveness of this mapping function hinges on both

the quality and quantity of the data provided. In general, having a
larger training set enables more effective features in the network,
leading to better performance. In short, large quantities of high-
quality data lead to better AI.

But how do companies go about producing and preparing this data?

Amassing and labeling (or annotating) is usually the most time-
consuming and expensive step in data preparation. This process
enables a system to recognize categories or objects of interest in data
and defines the appropriate outcome the algorithm should predict
once deployed. Oftentimes, internal annotation is the only option for
enterprises due to privacy or quality concerns. This might be because
data can’t leave the facility or needs extremely accurate tagging from
an expert.

PGI will need to amass thousands of images containing

healthy/defective parts that need to be labeled. Moreover, there is a
sharp imbalance in the data: Most of it contains healthy (non-
defective) products, and the company needs to collect more data to
achieve the needed balanced image set that training a deep neural
network requires. One way to overcome this imbalance is to use a
different type of AI system that focuses more on anomaly detection
(namely, “this product does not look like good ones”) vs. good/bad
products. Once the data is prepared and ready, the second task is to
build a proof of concept (PoC) implementation of the AI system, which
involves the second challenge/myth.

Myth No. 2: It’s easy to hire AI experts to build an internal

AI solution

Despite a plethora of AI tools for developers, AI expertise is hard to

find. How hard? There are around 300,000 AI experts worldwide
(22,000 Ph.D.-qualified), with the demand for AI
talent overshadowing the supply. While there are no technologies able
to accelerate training a Ph.D. in AI, there are nascent software
frameworks in the market that sidestep the need for in-depth
knowledge of the field. Otherwise, both hypothetical and real
companies risk waiting a long time to find adequate AI talent.

Myth No. 3: Once a PoC is successful, building a final system

is just “a bit more work”

If PGI has done things right until this step and has succeeded in
securing internal/external AI resources to design a working PoC, they
may assume that they’re only steps away from deploying a feasible
solution.

The truth is that AI adoption in a production workflow requires clear

success criteria, and a multi-step approach. While the first step is
often a PoC, there have been countless that fall short of
implementation for reasons that have little to do with AI, and much to
do with the right planning. To avoid wasted time and money,
organizations need to define clear criteria and timeline in advance to
decide whether the tech should go into production. A simple
benchmark such as, “If the PoC delivers X at Y functionality, then we’ll
launch it here and here by this time,” would go a long way in terms of
helping enterprises define an actual deployment scenario.

Sheet metal defect detection.

Myth No. 4: Once I have a successful AI deployed, I don’t
need to touch it ever again

Let’s assume PGI gets past all the hurdles above, and successfully
implements AI-powered quality control in their industrial machines.
Because systems and processes are constantly evolving, there will
never be any AI that works off-the-shelf. Rather, customers need the
ability to build, customize, and continuously update AI autonomously,
without AI expertise.

Successful organizations will understand the operational conditions

that AI requires. The right thinking includes considering data
storage/management tools, retraining costs/time, and the overall AI
lifecycle management tools required to make sure an AI project does
not become a mess—or worse, ineffective.

Myth No. 5: AI can just be put on the cloud

Making it through the previous challenges, PGI  has one question:

where to put the AI solution? It is usually a mistake leaving the topic
of AI hardware embodiment as last, as it may taint the choice of the
tech stack and solution provider. While persistent and reliable Wi-Fi
connection may be a reality for certain use cases, it is often not
available for the industrial context: Spotty and unreliable connectivity,
coupled with low latency required for AI to operate in machines that
process tens of products per second, require edge, local
implementations. So, it’s best to think about this first, before having to
go back to step 1!

AI is Here to Stay in Industry 4.0

PGI has learned that to effectively implement AI, manufacturing will
need a disciplined approach and a mix of internal and external AI
resources combining engineering, R&D, and products. PGI’s
hypothetical team, like real teams, must work closely in building,
testing, and delivering the application. Additionally, teams must
oversee future maintenance and iterations.

Fortunately, new tools are enabling more organizations to take on AI

adoption. By carefully devising a “myth-free” AI strategy,
manufacturing and industrial teams will be entering and ultimately
leading the fourth—AI-powered—industrial revolution.