Lawson believes that intelligence at a system level is more important than at the machine level. There is a lot of focus on building smarter machines, but what we really need are smarter systems at a higher level. The machine level problems don’t need AI or ML; they just need good algorithms and good engineering and software, and you can solve a lot of those problems.
…
Lawson’s company—whose clients include McCain Foods, Mars Inc., Tyson and General Mills among others—uses AI to identify causes and effects as to what happens in a manufacturing supply chain process. “When we see variations or deviations in an important metric, we go back and look for correlations upstream that occurred earlier in the data chain that have the same characteristics of the variants that we’re seeing. In order to do this, however, you must sift through enormous amounts of data to find these correlations.” Using machine language, big data and AI can rapidly find these correlations and provide customers with the insights needed to solve the issue.
…
Lawson agrees with Garrett. “While there are practical success stories out there, there’s also an extraordinary level of hype around AI and how it will revolutionize the manufacturing industry. This hype poses an issue in that it gets in the way of those providing real innovative technology to their customers.”
