The perfect team: people and robots

The Perfect team: people and robots

Artificial intelligence and robotics are working together to enable companies—and their human workers—to become more efficient, productive and competitive.

Rise of the robots

The idea of self-operating machines can be traced all the way back to the world’s earliest civilisations and has long been a staple of science fiction. Fiction has now become reality as robots are playing an increasing part in manufacturing, with the automotive industry leading the way.

The latest statistics show that sales of industrial robots have doubled worldwide over the past five years, and they are forecast to rise almost a third within the next three years. As robot numbers grow exponentially, the cost of building them falls—while labour costs are rising around the world. According to private investment management firm ARK, industrial robot costs will drop around 65% from 2017 to 2025.

Artificial intelligence gets smarter

With increased computer power have come significant developments in artificial intelligence (AI) this century, and it has entered our daily lives in significant ways (think of Siri and Google).

AI-enabled machines are getting better at understanding human speech and intent, at determining relevance and at recognising images of all kinds—from human faces to technical design drawings. But uptake of AI in business has been slow.

MIT Sloan and Boston Consulting Group found that 85% of executives at large companies believe AI will give them a competitive advantage, but only about one in five of those companies had incorporated AI in any of their processes.

Industry 4.0 and the smart factory

Automation transformed 20th-century production lines; now AI and robotics herald the next transformation: the smart factory.

With the arrival of so-called industry 4.0, next-generation intelligent automation is expected to bring increased productivity and reduced costs by enhancing efficiency and reducing waste throughout the production process. And the ability to learn on the job allows AI-powered robots to deal with unusual situations, such as customisation requests or the arrival of large, unexpected orders. But this doesn’t mean that humans suddenly become redundant—rather, robots can free up time for employees to direct their talents in new directions. Machine operators, for instance, can explore new ways to use existing machines, while production managers can concentrate on how to lead, motivate and inspire their people.

Solving the labour shortage

Manufacturers are facing shortages of qualified labour, both skilled and unskilled, as older employees retire, younger generations lose interest in manufacturing jobs and, in many parts of the world, immigration policies are being tightened. Hence the need for more robots. The extreme version of this trend is the so-called lights-out factory, in which the production process is entirely automated, although the phenomenon is likely to remain rare—the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that only about 5% of all occupations consist of activities that are fully automatable. The manufacturing of robots themselves is one example: at the Japanese company Fanuc’s facility in Japan, robots replicate themselves 24 hours a day, seven days a week without human aid.

Predictive maintenance

A big plus—and cost-saver—for the smart factory is that a combination of big data processing, machine learning and telematics now gives manufacturers the opportunity to implement AI-enabled predictive maintenance. Modern robots are designed to monitor and manage their own condition and even order spare parts in advance, thus reducing unscheduled system downtime (by up to 60% in one case study by Hewlett Packard Enterprise), with a consequent significant saving. AI can also predict overall equipment effectiveness, production quality and even safety risk, making it easier to identify ways to improve production. The McKinsey Global Institute found that, with applied AI, manufacturers have the potential to increase delivery reliability by 20 to 30 percent.

Rise of the ‘cobots’

So-called collaborative robots or “cobots” are designed to work safely with humans in a shared workspace. Accordingly, the benefits of robotics are not limited to large-scale automated production lines but can be applied to businesses of any size. Cobots are relatively cheap and can be easily programmed to do a variety of tasks. Internet retailers and logistics companies are already reaping their benefits, and their use is likely to spread to a wide variety of sectors from the military to medicine. As cobots are introduced, work practices will change. Humans will concentrate on more complex tasks, while cobots carry out those that are more straightforward and tedious.

Transforming processes

Beyond the world of physical robots, automation has already begun to change the way that many offices work. So-called Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software is increasingly taking over the structured, repetitive, high-volume processes that are at the heart of almost every business. One early adopter was banking and financial services company BNY Mellon, which has reported an 88% improvement in processing time as a result. RPA is, in turn, likely to be replaced by Intelligent Process Automation, which adds machine learning into the mix, allowing it to improve on processes designed by humans. Financial research firm Autonomous examined all of the potential applications of AI across the front, middle and back offices of banks, investment managers and insurance companies globally and identified a cost saving of almost 20%. Overall, AI has been shown to make banks more efficient and more helpful, while enabling them to understand their customers better.

Making the most of big data

AI is the key to unlocking the huge amounts of data that are available to companies in the digital age, revealing a vital new source of business intelligence. The application of machine-learning algorithms to big-data analytics enables deep understanding of the buying habits of individual customers—who can then be more easily targeted and receive personalised messaging. A recent survey by New Vantage Partners of industry-leading companies in the US found that 97% are investing in building or launching big data and AI initiatives, with 73% saying they have already received measurable value as a result.

A new age of shopping

While big-data analytics have been applied for some time in e-commerce in order to personalise the retail experience, the increasing digitalisation of bricks and mortar shops is also making this possible for shoppers on the street. Facial recognition technology allows regular customers to be identified on entering a shop, and their previous buying choices can then be communicated digitally to staff. RFID sensors on clothes hangers in a fashion store can automatically log a customer’s interest when they take something from a rack. A similar system operates in Amazon Go grocery stores, where a combination of inventory management, sensor fusion and AI gives shoppers a seamless in-store experience—without the need for human intervention.

Making robotics and AI work for you

Business leaders need to think beyond quick fixes such as Robotic Process Automation just for the sake of achieving incremental performance improvements. AI needs to be customised to be useful and to be built into the day-to-day operations of a company. And like other members of the workforce, AI needs to be trained to produce optimum results. Some worry that AI will automate core systems and eliminate the need for people altogether. However, what seems more realistic is to think of the companies of tomorrow as networks of people interacting with various digital systems. And it’s the successful implementation of these systems that will provide those companies with the winning edge.