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Automating Business Intelligence to Access Meaningful and Predictive Data

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By Søren Block Olsen, director of marketing at TARGIT Business Intelligence & Analytics

According to a recent Gartner survey, 80 percent of manufacturers only measure results. They measure past performance by looking at the results in the financial statements.

Even the most diligent Lean Manufacturing Six Sigma Theory of Constraint practitioners do not know what impacted these results, or what is best done to improve going forward.

Too often manufacturing firms, even top-tier operations managers, use company analyses or reports which neglect to ask why outcomes failed. [Read more…] about Automating Business Intelligence to Access Meaningful and Predictive Data

Sick demonstrates ‘smart logistics’ system for warehouse automation

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Sensors supplier Sick showcased a new “smart logistics” system at the recent ProMAT Show, one of the world’s largest material handling exhibitions.

Sick says its system demonstrates how to obtain greater efficiency throughout supply chain operations.

Sick presented its new innovations under the banner of “Logistics Gets Smart”, and says they are designed to provide “highly efficient solutions for intralogistics applications”. [Read more…] about Sick demonstrates ‘smart logistics’ system for warehouse automation

Cognitive technologies and AI poised to transform all manufacturing sectors, says Frost

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ibm ai

Partnership, collaboration, and technology investment crucial for growth opportunities, says Frost & Sullivan’s industrial automation and process control team 

The Internet of Things and data analytics are transforming the manufacturing space, and data is the new currency.

Currently, human intervention is needed for logical and reasonable decision making. However, with the rise of cognitive technologies, machines will be empowered to detect constantly changing manufacturing scenarios and respond in real time with minimum human intervention.

To be successful, manufacturers need to invest in artificial intelligence technology to improve plant efficiency and productivity, and build partnerships and collaborations that drive data-driven intelligence.  [Read more…] about Cognitive technologies and AI poised to transform all manufacturing sectors, says Frost

Kuka agrees deal with Beet on IoT

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beet analytics video still

Kuka has agreed a deal with Beet Analytics as part of robot maker’s Industrie 4.0 strategy.

Kuka will now be able to offer Beet’s industrial IoT technology as another tool in their Industrie 4.0 eco-system and to offer Beet technology on Kuka solutions.

Ronny Chiang, president Beet analytics technology, says: “We are excited to work with Kuka, whose global industrial leadership in automation systems will further strengthen Beet’s presence in the global market. This will allow OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] to access Beet IoT solutions with a respected and established leader standing behind it.”  [Read more…] about Kuka agrees deal with Beet on IoT

AI knew Trump would win

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Artificial intelligence systems can predict election results better than traditional pollsters, according to a report on em360tech.com. 

Artificial intelligence systems predicted a win for Donald Trump, of the Republican Party, over Hillary Clinton, of the Democrats, in the US presidential elections held yesterday.

Most traditional opinion pollsters rely on directly asking people about their voting intentions and behaviour.  [Read more…] about AI knew Trump would win

Manufacturers rely on big data to navigate tough business conditions, says Honeywell

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Survey of 200 executives indicates most manufacturers plan to increase investments in data analytics over next year – even while delaying other technology investments

A recent survey of manufacturing executives indicates many respondents (67 percent) are pressing ahead with plans to invest in data analytics even as they pare back spending in other areas to combat tough business conditions.

The reason: Many say they view data analytics – a key component of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – as a viable solution to a cycle of problems that lead to downtime and lost revenue.

More than 200 North American manufacturing executives took part in the survey titled Data’s Big Impact on Manufacturing: A Study of Executive Opinions. The survey was jointly conducted by Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) and KRC Research, from May 23 to June 8, 2016.  [Read more…] about Manufacturers rely on big data to navigate tough business conditions, says Honeywell

Optical character recognition drives: Automation of auditing for lean efficiencies and accuracy

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By Thomas R. Cutler

The technology driving the most significant transformation of audits over the next three years is unquestionably Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Too often the thought of automation has been relegated to the manufacturing plant floor or materials handling in a distribution center.

Yet as small businesses represent the largest segment of private lending (more than 90 per cent of the funds by third party lenders), the new form of automation, artificial intelligence and big data is fast-growing and significant.

There are now many viable options on the OCR market, including: PerfectAudit by Ocrolus, SodaPDF, Adobe Acrobat, ABBYY FineReader, and Readiris; pros and cons to each technology, yet only PerfectAudit is the only OCR application custom built for identifying aberrancies and trends during financial reviews, yet flexible enough to be utilized by anyone reviewing bank and credit card statements.

Many industries can add tremendous efficiency by translating paper documents to intelligent data.  [Read more…] about Optical character recognition drives: Automation of auditing for lean efficiencies and accuracy

The great migration: cloud computing for smart manufacturing

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smart factory illustration

Martyn Williams, managing director at Copa-Data UK, discusses “unlocking the value of cross-facility data sets” through cloud computing for smart manufacturing

According to an industry survey by IBM, two thirds of mid-sized companies have already implemented – or are currently considering – a cloud based storage model for their organisation.

The analytic advantages of cloud computing in industry are no secret, in fact, 70 per cent of these cloud-using respondents said they were actively pursuing cloud-based analytics to gleam greater insights and efficiency in order to achieve business goals.  [Read more…] about The great migration: cloud computing for smart manufacturing

From fewer human workers to no human workers. That’s the way things are going, says Genpact

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Paul Burton, senior vice president, analytics and research
Paul Burton, senior vice president, analytics and research

Not very far into the future, business leaders will no longer be asking, “How can I achieve this objective with fewer human resources?”, instead they will be asking, “How can I achieve this objective with no human resources?” 

That is the view of Paul Burton, senior vice president, analytics and research, Genpact. 

In a very thorough and extended blog on the subject of business process outsourcing and related subjects, Burton claims there will be a “fundamental paradigm shift” in the way enterprises approach the objective of efficiency.

Burton writes: “We believe that disruption in our industry will result from a fundamental shift in the BPO paradigm. No longer will we (or our competitors) ask how we can operate a particular process more efficiently with fewer, and less expensive, human resources.

“Instead, our point of departure will be from a new paradigm, one in which the framing question is: how do we operate this particular process with no human resources? When you start with this proposition, everything about the way you approach the problem changes.”

Full article at Genpact.com.