35+ AI solutions for automation in manufacturing
For years, Software-as-a-Solution (SaaS) companies redefined how easy it was to automate and optimise business processes – from e-mail marketing, sales CRMs, and eCommerce to name a few. Manufacturers were usually stuck with expensive enterprise solutions that were costly and difficult to use. Now, with the affordability of AI and robotics solutions, manufacturers finally can have their own software stack. This means that manufacturers can automate shopfloor and other business processes in days, not months, by choosing the best solution for each task. In this post, we will give a brief introduction to manufacturing tech stack to get SMEs started on automation.
What is a manufacturing tech stack?
A tech stack refers to the different solutions that stack up to deliver exponential gains in efficiency, reducing operational costs exponentially. This is not only automation for the shopfloor, like assembly robots or automated quality inspection. AI-powered tech solutions can provide automation for areas such as manufacturing data analysis (e.g. manufacturing analytics, supply chain management), production tasks (e.g. smart assembly, inventory management), marketing and sales (e.g. e-mails and a CRM), as well as internal operational processes (e.g. AI notetakers). You might choose different providers for various tasks and over time you can integrate them, but at much lower risk than a full-package enterprise solution.
A tech solution does not need to be complicated or solve everything in your business process. Instead, we recommend using lean production principles to identify specific tasks to automate, such as recording trainings or translation support, and testing free AI solutions to see how they work for your team (or don’t), and build a company culture that can quickly adopt new technologies.
Manufacturing data analytics and process optimisation
Because AI is well suited to processing large quantities of data many companies now provide manufacturing intelligence software. These AI manufacturing solutions are powerful for harmonizing data across locations and production lines, create supply chain management to save costs, check operational equipment effectiveness (OEE), look at product lifecycles, simulate for large engineering models, and detect defects to name a few areas.
As companies provide a range of solutions through their manufacturing AI agents, try to find a small project to start so that you can quickly see if the data flow, interface, and insights work for one production line before expanding.
Companies to explore: Manex AI, Cognite, Makersite, Synera, Emmi AI, Magentic
AI-driven shopfloor automation and machine vision systems
The other aspect of AI that contributes to Industry 4.0 is robotics and machine vision systems that support automation of specific tasks and threshold decision making. These solutions typically work best in a cobot arrangement, or a hybrid setup where machines do the screenings and detections, focusing human expertise on the complex cases and decision making.
Machine vision systems are now much more accessible from a price and setup perspective than a decade ago. Instead of just barcode scanners or rules-based automations, you have AI-powered quality control, defect detection that can describe the issues, and completeness checks that can tell you what pieces are missing, to name a few use-cases. You can read more about them in our quick guide to machine vision systems.
Due to the wide variety of industry needs, solutions providers have also come up with different approaches. In many cases, solutions providers have a hardware component, such as proprietary cameras and special lenses, as well as an AI-powered software solution. The solutions mentioned below can vary greatly in pricing and may have proprietary hardware that requires special training or setup. Enao Vision is one of these solutions, but the camera scan can be done with our free app on an iPhone, which you can try immediately.
Companies to look into: Keyence, IrsaVision, Cognex, EasyODM, PekatVision, Basler, Zebra, Enao Vision
AI tools for internal processes in manufacturing
There are also AI solutions for internal business processes as well. Some of them are better for collaboration, like Slack for communication and cloud solutions for sharing documents and files if many people have a work phone or laptop. Other AI solutions can be tested and managed by one or two people to start.
Because these are internal tools, you also have a lower risk in using them. If you or your colleagues don’t find it helpful, you simply delete the account. If you’ve ever thought “I wish someone would do that for me”, there is probably an AI tool for that available today. Below, we have focused on a few tools that are free to use or start, so that you can immediately test them for the business task you want to automate, and you can check out our extended list here.
Video recording for trainings: Loom
Notetaking for calls and video transcription: OtterAI
Company messaging and communication: Slack
Cloud storage, word docs, spreadsheets: Google Workspace and Google Docs (14-days), Proton Drive (for 1 user, up to 5 GB), Notion
You can also check out Europe-based solutions for popular software here.
Marketing, business development, sales tools for manufacturers
In the past, graphics, websites, and digital marketing were “nice to haves” for manufacturing. But many of the most established software companies today now use AI to help every customer succeed in everything from design, to writing emails and publishing a website – no expertise required. This means that you no longer need to be a marketing expert to use an e-mail automation tool, a developer to build your company website or online store, designer to have branded materials. Now, manufacturers, SMEs, and leading OEM companies have used these solutions to expand from business-to-business (B2B) to direct-to-consumer (D2C) online retail.
These software solutions can get you started with templates and provide AI-assisted suggestions based on your requirements, whether it’s your tone of voice, type of audience, or even send-out times. Now, instead of a lengthy hiring process to bring someone new onboard, you can experiment to build better customer relationships and increase revenues with new sales channels – all with more affordable AI solutions in a few clicks.
Since there are so many SaaS solutions for each business process, we have focused on ones that have a free tier or trial to get you started at no cost.
Social Media: Buffer
E-mail automation: MailChimp (14-day trial), Brevo (single user), HubSpot, odoo, mailerlite, cleverreach
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Salesforce, Hubspot, Pipedrive (14-day trial), Klaviyo
Website and online store builders (no/low-code): Loveable, Webflow, Shopify (free to signup and build)
Design (posters, social media, etc.): Canva
With the user-friendly solutions available today, the risks are low for automating repetitive and slow tasks in manufacturing, and the gains are massive. AI is no longer a costly tool only enterprises can afford with custom solutions that take months to execute. Instead, doing pilot tests with AI-powered solutions, whether it’s an app for meetings or a smartphone-based automated quality inspection solution like Enao Vision, can start tomorrow with a free app download. You can also see how it works by booking a demo with us anytime.