AI presents opportunities for cost optimization in manufacturing

Importantly, they can also prevent costly defects and avoid operational inefficiencies. While COVID-19 sped up the pace of adoption for many industries, including industrial manufacturing, manufacturing companies have historically embraced new ways of working. Manufacturers were early endorsers of Kaizen, Six Sigma, and Lean, known business improvement models with direct impacts to the continuous improvement methodology critical to manufacturing processes. And now, AI is being embraced for its ability to make supply chains more flexible -- mostly to evaluate vulnerabilities identified during the COVID-19 pandemic among their suppliers and in the supply chain itself -- reduce costs, and fully leverage human talent and intelligence. According to a new KPMG report, Thriving in an AI World, 93% of industrial manufacturing respondents indicated they have moderate or fully functional AI, primarily machine learning technologies, implemented into their processes.