As I noted in my last post, the two key words for 2023 are Generative AI and Sustainable. This news concerns the release of more Copilots. These are from SymphonyAI. The company claims that generative and predictive AI are enhancing efficiency by 30%, reducing maintenance costs by 50%, and expediting decision-making by 70%. (I don’t know how they can measure the last one and the first two are huge numbers. But I will buy that there should be measurable improvements.) The three announced Copilots are designed to help frontline workers speed operations and improve efficiency.
The three role-based copilots—Plant Performance Copilot, Digital Manufacturing Copilot, and the Connected Worker Copilot—provide enhanced human-like interaction so workers can get beyond standard data analytics and analysis to understand what happened, why, and more importantly, anticipate future events. Assisted by copilots, plant managers, operators, engineers, and technicians can swiftly identify, diagnose, and overcome operational hurdles with instant initiation of corrective and mitigating actions.
Built on SymphonyAI’s next generation predictive and generative AI Industrial Reasoning and Insights Platform (IRIS), the copilots integrate within SymphonyAI industrial applications. The copilots leverage Microsoft Azure OpenAI alongside an industrial knowledge graph that includes events, sensor data, asset details, product documentation and manuals, and reliability and maintenance reports. All three copilots contextualize, process, and analyze data from various manufacturing sources. Data is presented in natural language to create actionable insights, enhance operations, reduce downtime, and bolster overall productivity.
Plant Performance Copilot enables users, including plant managers, maintenance, and reliability engineers, to quickly uncover and implement recommended actions to enhance plant performance by using natural language in a chat format rather than querying databases, interpreting dashboards, or accessing knowledge repositories. It interacts across all relevant data sources for critical asset processes, delivering targeted user assistance, recommends actions, and forecasts plant performance through contextual, proactive insights and automated workflows. Leveraging natural language, it accelerates root cause analysis from generated anomalies, including quantified KPI impact of underperforming assets and processes, along with recommended remediations.
Digital Manufacturing Copilot streamlines and strengthens manufacturing operations by seamlessly tying workflow, production, and asset data together to unveil invaluable production process optimization and bottleneck prevention insights. Generative AI adds a more intuitive ability to run what-if scenarios for production scheduling, boost throughput, and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) metrics.
Connected Worker Copilot can quickly and comprehensively scan machine manuals, procedures, knowledge bases, and other sources of data to provide instant, contextual recommendations and information to users in natural language, enabling them to instantly identify and resolve problems without having to conduct time-consuming research or consult more experienced colleagues. Integrated with SymphonyAI Connected Worker, the copilot streamlines inspections, reduces rework, and minimizes resource waste for frontline workers. Natural language access to troubleshooting guides, maintenance manuals, and procedure documentation fosters smooth operations with clear insights into workflow metrics and assists new employees with a simple screen tap.
