May, 20208 INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING ­ MANUFACTURING A BETTER FUTUREBY RICHARD KOH, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, MICROSOFT [NASDAQ: MSFT]Prior YearsTill this day, I still remember my first job as an IT specialist maintaining manufacturing and supply-chain systems, and being amazed how the systems were like a maestro orchestrating the markets' forecasts, materials requirements planning, factory build plans, parts purchasing plans, inventory pick orders, line assembly work orders and shipping manifests, etc. In many ways, the building of physical products has remained unchanged for decades. However, the underlying digital fabric and internet connectivity, and consequently, manufacturing and supply-chain systems have been undergoing a massive transformation.Fast ForwardToday, the hyperconnected digital world has not only led to many breakthroughs in how many systems can collaborate in real-time securely across many organizations, but ambient intelligence powered by the rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also empowered software applications to be infused with AI. All these are made possible by Microsoft's worldview of the Intelligent Cloud and the Intelligent Edge.Let me break the above view into two themes ­ connecting Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and AI, and Security.Connecting Data and Artificial IntelligenceData is generated at the edge in many manufacturing scenarios, whether it is the level of inventory of raw materials, to the machine health of assembly robots and shipments of goods in a container crossing the oceans, the ever-changing nature of data in real-time at the edge is a reality since the industrial age.But the disconnected and sometimes "analog" nature of each of the discreet processes along with the manufacturing and supply-chain, challenges many organizations to detect and respond to the dynamic changes in market demands of their products, adverse weather patterns that can potentially disrupt the supply-chain, real-time wear-and-tear information of their machines, and many more. The real world constantly presents changes that are unexpected and without a robust digital feedback loop, the lack of transparency and traceability, the entire manufacturing and supply-chain are not performing at its fullest potential, resulting in time and revenue losses, inefficiencies and even customers dissatisfaction.The increasing convergence of IT and OT in manufacturing and supply-chain has presented amazing opportunities to take the digital transformation that has been on-going in this space to even higher levels. Connecting previously digital data silos IN MYV EW
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