Manufacturing Today Issue - 219 December 2023 | Page 32

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Regardless of the problems in the world , sustainability is a megatrend that is still important
going to start using AI to deliver benefit . Senior management need to be using AI as quickly as possible to understand customer behavior as markets change .
Everything that can be done to better understand market changes gives greater insight and accuracy to your plans and assumptions behind them . CEOs must ensure their business is implementing AI to better achieve this , that the insights are being fed throughout the decision-making process , and that management at all levels is learning how best to use AI to give the best possible demand picture . In 2024 , CEOs must ensure that demand plan quality is a priority for commercial leaders and teams .
However , AI is not just for crunching data . Typically manufacturers improve efficiency by improving processes and reducing material costs . But now manufacturers can use tech to also take out essential but straightforward human decision-making that can be done non-manually by machine learning ( ML ). For instance , many decisions in a manufacturer ’ s systems are binary : should we reschedule ; do we cancel this ; do we raise an alert when supplies are low ; raising alerts when orders do not meet planned demand , etc .
Implementing AI and ML to achieve this next round of people-efficiency is a key priority for 2024 to drive speed and cost savings , with clear thought too on whether
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