Wouldn’t it be great to have an assistant who was alwayswith you, whispering in your ear the information you needed, at just the momentyou needed it, throughout your work day? Smartdigital assistants are cropping up everywhere, and wearables,including a reboot of Google Glass as a virtual assistant, could make theever-present, all-knowing electronic aide a reality.
Plataine,an Israeli software company that creates AI-enhancedsystems that use sensors and powerful data processing to createsmart factories, has created a virtual assistant that could have stepped out ofa science fiction movie. Plataine melded its technology with Google Glass Enterpriseand Dialogflow,a Google NLP (natural language processing) technology, to produce a wearable smartproduction assistant that can improve efficiency, reduce costly errors, andincrease managementagility.
Plataine’s smart digital assistant solves real-worldproblems familiar to many production-floor managers:
- Most production floor workers, and even manymanagers, do not have computers or tablets handy; in some large, complexfactories, work orders and workflow still rely on paper-based tracking.
- Employees’ “hands are busy working,” Anat Karni,Plataine’s product lead, told attendees at a presentation on the smart digitalassistant. Additionally, they might be wearing gloves. Using their hands toaccess and report information slows down production and creates a distraction.
- Where computers are available, entering updatesto workflow, reporting backups or breakdowns, or keeping abreast of new urgentneeds requires stopping one’s work, going to the workstation or locating thetablet, and entering or accessing the information.
- Delayed and inefficient reporting hampersmanagers’ ability to respond quickly to problems.
Inefficient documentation and tracking has an enormous cost:Karni said that one client told Plataine that 25 percent of production-linetime is spent on documentation and reporting tasks.
Assistance when and where you need it
Plataine’s smart factory technology includes sensor-basedsystems for tracking and locating materials, managing inventory, optimizingproduction and quality control, and tracking work orders. Merging these toolswith smart devices, like Google Glass or tablet-based tools, provides managersand workers in complex manufacturing operations with timely notification ofwork in progress or completed and of problems on the production floor, enablingan agile response to changes. But these tools still require some use of thehands. So, Karni said, Plataine integrated Dialogflow into its GoogleGlass-based virtual assistant to “close the loop.”
Dialogflow uses machinelearning to facilitate conversation with the virtual assistant. ThisAI-basednatural language processing ability allows workers and managers to makerequests, ask questions, and get the information they need—instantly, inthe workflow.
Modernemployees—and consumers—are increasingly accustomed to searching forinformation using voice-activated digital assistants. Bringing this intuitive,hands-free option onto the production floor is a natural evolution of AI-poweredtechnology.
In the use cases that Karni presented to Google CloudNext ’18:
- A production worker used the smart assistant tofind out which work order was most urgent and request needed supplies.
- The worker requisitioned the supplies using avoice request. The assistant told her exactly where to find the materials inthe warehouse. The smart digital assistant works with Plataine’s inventorymanagement to choose supplies, and it updates the inventory, allocating selectedmaterials to the work order. This helps with inventory management.
- The software recorded the work order as “inprogress,” providing real-time updates to the worker’s manager and team.
- When the worker tells the assistant that thework order is complete, the assistant updates and archives the completed workorder, again updating the manager and team members.
In a second use case, the virtual assistant notified theworker of recently delivered materials that had been flagged as defective. Itthen located the materials so the worker could remove them from the supply room.In the case of materials that had already been processed, the virtual assistant,integrated with Plataine’s smart factory software, identified products madewith the defective materials, located them, and “quarantined” them, ensuringthat they wouldn’t be used or sold.
By offering hands-free assistance in the workflow, wearable performancesupport tools reduce disruptions. Smart virtual assistants allow workers tofocus on the job at hand, confident that they have the latest information andall of the materials and tools they need. Information processing and updateshappen in real time, allowing both workers and managers to improve theirefficiency and reduce quality problems that might result from using defectiveor expired materials.
