Artificial intelligence is gaining momentum across industries, and manufacturing is among its most active users.
The technology helps optimize manufacturing processes, use resources more intelligently, and cope with arising challenges. AI is also used in manufacturing project management. What are its applications in this domain? What challenges can be addressed with AI? What project management software for manufacturing industry is equipped with AI? Read the article to find the answers.
The Challenges Of Manufacturing Project Management
Manufacturing projects involve administering complex workflows, diverse teams, material resources, and equipment. In addition, they can run in parallel, which increases the complexity of their management. The complex nature of these projects causes the following challenges in manufacturing project management.
It can be challenging to balance personnel and materials across multiple projects without conflicts and overload. What is more, the manufacturing industry is suffering from workforce shortages, making it difficult to staff projects with required people.
- Timely project completion.
The manufacturing environment is hazardous, which can cause unplanned delays and failure to complete projects on time. Also, persisting supply chain challenges can disrupt the workflow and make it difficult to stick to planned timelines.
The manufacturing process is fraught with risks. They can be caused by supply chain challenges, equipment failure, market fluctuations, etc., and can negatively impact the flow of manufacturing projects.
Digitalization of the manufacturing process has led to an increased amount of data that should be stored and properly processed to get the required insights.
Artificial intelligence can help address these challenges: the technology provides intelligent insights and automates repetitive tasks, which can streamline the manufacturing workflow and optimize decision-making. Let’s consider AI’s contribution in more detail.
How Does AI Help Manage Manufacturing Projects?
Here are the most common applications of AI in manufacturing project management.
Resource demand forecasting
AI allows manufacturing project managers to predict the demand for personnel and material resources. This becomes possible thanks to analyzing past projects and current trends. Accurate demand forecasting makes resource capacity planning and resource allocation more effective.
Resource capacity planning
Resource demand forecasting conducted by AI tools helps perform resource capacity planning, which is the other essential step in ensuring proper project staffing. Capacity planning aims to prevent resource shortages, keep resources’ workloads balanced, and prevent delays and cost overruns.
Predictive resource allocation
AI helps allocate resources based on their availability, capacity, and skills (the latter is relevant for allocating human resources). What is more, the technology makes it possible to allocate resources based on resource demand forecasting and capacity planning. This ensures resource availability at the required time, helps prevent bottlenecks and delays, and optimizes the use of material resources.
Dynamic scheduling
AI-powered manufacturing PM tools can automatically adjust project schedules in real-time, e.g., when you need to address various disruptions like equipment failure or delays caused by supply chain challenges. Dynamic scheduling helps keep projects on track.
Informed decision-making
Artificial intelligence makes it possible to simulate different scenarios so that project managers and other stakeholders can analyze their consequences and choose the most suitable scenario. In addition, the technology is capable of processing large amounts of data and providing useful insights. These capabilities are the basis for informed decision-making, which is essential for complex manufacturing projects where the price for poor decisions is high.
Predictive maintenance
AI enables predictive maintenance, which involves monitoring equipment performance to forecast possible issues in its work and the time it will need maintenance. This proactive approach helps manufacturing managers minimize downtime and project delays.
More effective risk management
Risks are inevitable in manufacturing project management. Fortunately, artificial intelligence can assist in mitigating these problems. The above-mentioned predictive maintenance helps prevent some risk-bearing events, like equipment failure. Resource capacity planning is useful for overcoming the risks related to resource shortages. Finally, scenario analysis can identify potential risks and their impact on projects, which helps project managers develop effective mitigation strategies.
Automation
AI automates manufacturing processes, which in turn makes it possible to overcome resource shortages and increase production efficiency. What is more, artificial intelligence can automate repetitive tasks in project management: e.g., data entry, reporting, scheduling, etc., which allows project managers and team members to focus on more strategic or creative activities.
Cost optimization
Therefore, AI in manufacturing project management helps optimize resource utilization, streamline production and project workflows, prevent negative risks or mitigate their negative consequences, reduce waste, and improve decision-making. All these outcomes are essential for the optimization of manufacturing projects’ costs.
Example Of AI Tools For Manufacturing Project Management
To be able to take advantage of all the benefits provided by AI, you need to choose the right manufacturing project management tool. One example is Epicflow, an AI-powered multi-project resource management solution suitable for manufacturing projects. Here are some examples of its AI functionality and how it is useful for manufacturing project management.
- Automatic resource allocation suggestions: Epicflow analyzes the data on employees’ skills, capacity, availability, and other essential attributes and suggests a perfectly matching team member to assign to a task.
- Forecasting resource capacity and workload: these insights help project managers avoid bottlenecks and resource shortages and adjust plans and schedules accordingly.
- Scenario analysis: Epicflow’s What-if analysis feature makes it possible to run simulations and analyze the impact of changes on projects and resources.
- AI assistant: Virtual assistant Epica streamlines project work and the interaction between a project manager and team members, e.g., it can send reminders and notifications and warn of upcoming bottlenecks.
These capabilities ensure optimum resource utilization, smooth workflow, and optimized decision-making.
Conclusion
AI is revolutionizing manufacturing project management: it optimizes resources and schedules, enhances efficiency, and enables informed decision-making. AI-driven tools for manufacturing project management help manufacturers and project managers overcome challenges, reduce costs, and achieve their project goals more effectively.
