5 Ways Manufacturers Can Win More Business

At Bright Machines, we have high ambitions for the future of factory floors. When talking to customers about implementing automation for their factory line there are typically three primary considerations – output, quality, and cost. Return on Investment (ROI) is embedded in all three vectors but one often overlooked consideration is how customers can win more business using our automation solutions.

The promise of automation – higher throughput, less downtime, fewer errors – is what every manufacturer wants; but its cost, as measured in both dollars and time, can make it unappealing. But with software-defined automation, you’ll achieve above benefits and lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your automation equipment.

Manufacturers today are facing some tough challenges: a rapidly changing geopolitical climate, ever-evolving consumer demands, concerns around labor cost and availability.

Computer vision technology has made monumental leaps in the last 10-20 years – look no further than self-driving cars as an example of the huge technical accomplishments in the space.

Bright Machines placed #13 on the new Forbes AI 50 – an annual ranking of America’s most promising artificial intelligence companies. Forbes recognized us for our work leveraging AI to solve for the inherent problems afflicting one of the world’s largest and most critical industries – manufacturing.

“Machine learning” gets thrown around a lot. These days it seems like any description of a technological innovation would not be complete without the term “ML” attached to it. Reminds me of “.com” circa 1999. But what does it mean for a machine to truly learn?

Not all automation is created equal. As automation permeates nearly every part of businesses today, there are still lots of exciting opportunities in manufacturing that weren’t feasible even a few short years ago. Picking the right starting point, the right project, is critical to success and buy-in for the next project.

If you’ve been managing a factory floor, you have likely learned the hard way that assembly automation can come at a price: unscheduled downtime. Whether it’s due to malfunctions, making small process changes that turn into big redesigns, or the time-consuming process of reconfiguring a machine…

The way products have been manufactured has evolved significantly over the past decades. Today, most are built in large factories in low-cost regions, primarily in Asia but also increasingly in eastern Europe and South America.

All around us – in our homes, in our cars and in our hands – products are getting smarter. They interact with us – respond to our touch and our voice and adapt to our needs. They are responsive, flexible and intelligent.

The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about many of the factories that make these products.