into each part of the business in a strategic manner. Purao advised companies to collaborate with industry peers so they can apply lessons learned, and to work in partnership with the business as a single team. Digital twins were among the company’s manufacturing innovations.
“We’re working closely with the business to achieve our vision for the digitalized manufacturing plant,” said Purao. “We’re connecting data sources so the plant worker has a mobile device with all the information they need at their fingertips. We’ve established a digital plan that’s self-optimized to increase productivity. Eventually, we’ll shift from reactive plant operations to exception-based behavior.
“You want to do innovation at the edge for quick value, but the foundation gives you the multiplying factor of that value to make it scalable for the organization,” said Purao. “You don’t have to put innovation on hold to get the foundation right. You can do things in parallel.”“First, we set goals that were larger than what many people knew or believed were possible,” she said.
“In a volatile supply chain environment where things can skew so quickly, those parameters can get out of whack and cause inventory to grow,” said Tibodeau. “With AI and machine learning, we can automatically review key master data parameters associated with MRP including cycle time and lead times, and make recommendations on how to improve them for greater control.”“The whole concept of advanced AI is very powerful,” he said.