In the digital age of manufacturing, companies are striving to enhance their operations from the product design process, to the supply chain, to delivery. In order to succeed, manufacturing and engineering (M&E) teams must find ways to deliver the right products and services, accelerate time to market, and drive efficiencies to each stage of development. Those who do will have the opportunity to increase revenue and achieve valuable competitive advantage—and those who do not will risk losing out to competitors.
Supply chain management is a crucial component of any business strategy. This includes the design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of all supply chain activities—including finding and storing raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and product completion. Organizations across the M&E sector are investing in high performance computing (HPC) technologies to optimize the flow of products and services. HPC solutions are empowering companies with the right IT tools to meet rising industry requirements and dramatically shorten product development cycles.
ACCELERATING THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
To achieve optimal performance and output, manufacturers are implementing high performance solutions to improve supply chain management from end to end. Fueled by HPC innovation, artificial intelligence (AI) is also being adopted globally to help companies improve their supply chains by proactively identifying issues and enhancing the entire development process.
Other benefits of an AI approach include:
- Predictive analytics delivers key intelligence to optimize supply chain performance.
- Accelerated analytics enables IT departments to forecast customer demand.
- Deep learning, a subset of AI, helps to refine product models for design and testing.
- Machine automation drastically improves operational efficiencies.
In a recent survey of 1,100 manufacturers by Deloitte and MHI, the nation’s largest material handling, logistics, and supply chain association, 51 percent of supply chain and logistics professionals felt that AI will provide a competitive advantage, rising 39 percent from the previous year. The survey also found that only 17 percent were using data analytics to predict and prevent supply chain inefficiencies. However, that number is expected to jump to 79 percent over the next three to five years. Furthermore, a 2016 IDC report projects that by 2020, 50 percent of mature supply chains will use accelerated analytics and AI for planning, and to eliminate reliance on short-term demand forecasts. This is vital to achieving greater quality and reliability for the long term, which ensures business continuity and longevity.
ENHANCING OPERATIONS WITH HPC AND AI
Business leaders across the M&E sector are already adopting an AI-based approach to product development, which is enhancing speed and performance from end to end. Thanks to industry solutions expressly designed for real-time data analytics and IT automation, manufacturers stand to increase workplace productivity and produce better products and services. Market-leading AI experts such as NVIDIA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) are preparing customers for success with a powerful combination of HPC and AI tools to rapidly improve supply chain management capabilities.
NVIDIA GPUs are designed to accelerate AI applications to help manufacturers quickly analyze growing datasets. Combined with robust HPC servers from HPE, users can harness the massively parallel processing power of GPUs to achieve peak levels of performance. Companies who invest in these solutions will have the opportunity to analyze and act on troves of supply chain management data, pinpoint critical industry trends, reduce forecasting errors, ensure optimal IT performance, and develop high-quality products.
To learn more about how AI techniques are revolutionizing the M&E sector, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter at @VineethRam. And don’t miss out on deep learning applications that can improve your business –check out @HPE_HPC and @NVIDIAAI for the latest news and updates.
