Transforming Industries with MongoDB and AI: Manufacturing and Motion

This is the first in a six-part series focusing on critical AI use cases across several industries. The series covers the manufacturing and motion, financial services, retail, telecommunications and media, insurance, and healthcare industries.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) within the manufacturing and automotive industries has transformed the conventional value chain, presenting a spectrum of opportunities. Leveraging Industrial IoT, companies now collect extensive data from assets, paving the way for analytical insights and unlocking novel AI use cases, including enhanced inventory management and predictive maintenance.

Inventory management

Efficient supply chains can control operational costs and ensure on-time delivery to their customers. Inventory optimization and management is a key component in achieving these goals. Managing and optimizing inventory levels, planning for fluctuations in demand, and of course, cutting costs are all imperative goals. However, efficient inventory management for manufacturers presents complex data challenges too, primarily in forecasting demand accurately and optimizing stock levels. This is where AI can help.

AI algorithms can be used to analyze complex datasets to predict future demand for products or parts. Improvement in demand forecasting accuracy is crucial for maintaining optimal inventory levels. AI-based time series forecasting can assist in adapting to rapid changes in customer demand. Once the demand is known, AI can play a pivotal role in stock optimization. By analyzing historical sales data and market trends, manufacturers can determine the most efficient stock levels and even reduce human error. On top of all this existing potential, generative AI can help with generating synthetic inventory data and seasonally adjusted demand patterns. It can also help with creating scenarios to simulate supply chain disruptions.

MongoDB Atlas makes this process simple. At the warehouse, the inventory can be scanned using a mobile device. This data is persisted in Atlas Device SDK and synced with Atlas using Device Sync, which is used by MongoDB customers like Grainger. Atlas Device Sync provides an offline-first seamless mobile experience for inventory tracking, making sure that inventory data is always accurate in Atlas. Once data is in Atlas, it can serve as the central repository for all inventory-related data. This repository becomes the source of data for inventory management AI applications, eliminating data silos and improving visibility into overall inventory levels and movements. Using Atlas Vector Search and generative AI, manufacturers can easily categorize products based on their seasonal attributes, cluster products with similar seasonal demand patterns, and provide context to the foundation model to improve the accuracy of synthetic inventory data generation.

Predictive maintenance

The most basic approach to maintenance today is reactive — assets are deliberately allowed to operate until failures actually occur. The assets are maintained as needed, making it challenging to anticipate repairs. Preventive maintenance, however, allows systems or components to be replaced based on a conservative schedule to prevent commonly occurring failures — although predictive maintenance is expensive to implement due to frequent replacement of parts before end-of-life.

AI offers a chance to efficiently implement predictive maintenance using data collected from IoT sensors on machinery trained to detect anomalies. ML/AI algorithms like regression models or decision trees are trained on the preprocessed data, deployed on-site for inference, and continuously analyzed sensor data. When anomalies are detected, alerts are generated to notify maintenance personnel, enabling proactive planning and execution of maintenance actions to minimize downtime and optimize equipment reliability and performance. A retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture can be deployed to generate or curate the data preprocessor removing the need for specialized data science knowledge. The domain expert can provide the right prompts for the large language model. Once the maintenance alert is generated by an AI model, generative AI can come in again to suggest a repair strategy, taking spare parts inventory data, maintenance budget, and personal availability into consideration. Finally, the repair manuals can be vectorized and used to power a chatbot application that guides the technician in performing the actual repair.

MongoDB documents are inherently flexible while allowing data governance when required. Since machine health prediction models require not just sensor data but also maintenance history and inventory data, the document model is a perfect fit to model such disparate data sources. During the maintenance and support process of a physical product, information such as product information and replacement parts documentation must be available and easily accessible to support staff. Full-text search capabilities provided by Atlas Search can be integrated with the support portal and help staff retrieve information from Atlas clusters with ease. Atlas Vector Search is a foundational element for effective and efficiently powered predictive maintenance models. Manufacturers can use MongoDB Atlas to explore ways of simplifying machine diagnostics. Audio files can be recorded from machines, which can then be vectorized and searched to retrieve similar cases. Once the cause is identified, they can use RAG to implement a chatbot interface that the technician can interact with and get context-aware, step-by-step guidance on how to perform the repair.

Autonomous driving

With the rise of connected vehicles, automotive manufacturers have been compelled to transform their business models into software-first organizations. The data generated by connected vehicles is used to create better driver assistance systems, paving the way for autonomous driving applications. However, it is challenging to create fully autonomous vehicles that can drive safer than humans. Some experts estimate that the technology to achieve level 5 autonomy is about 80% developed — but the remaining 20% will be extremely hard to achieve and will take a lot of time to perfect.

AI-based image and object recognition in automotive applications face uncertainties, but manufacturers must utilize data from radar, LiDAR, cameras, and vehicle telemetry to improve AI model training. Modern vehicles act as data powerhouses, constantly gathering and processing information from onboard sensors and cameras, generating significant Big Data. Robust storage and analysis capabilities are essential to manage this data, while real-time analysis is crucial for making instantaneous decisions to ensure safe navigation. MongoDB can play a significant role in addressing these challenges. The document model is an excellent way to accommodate diverse data types such as sensor readings, telematics, maps, and model results. New fields to the documents can be added at run time, enabling the developers to easily add context to the raw telemetry data.

MongoDB’s ability to handle large volumes of unstructured data makes it suitable for the constant influx of vehicle-generated information. Atlas Search provides a performant search engine to allow data scientists to iterate their perception AI models. Finally, Atlas Device Sync can be used to send configuration updates to the vehicle's advanced driving assistance system

Other notable use cases

AI plays a critical role in fulfilling the promise of Industry 4.0. Numerous other use cases of AI can be enabled by MongoDB Atlas, some of which include:

• Logistics Optimization: AI can help optimize routes resulting in reduced delays and enhanced efficiency in day-to-day delivery operations.

• Quality Control and Defect Detection: Computer or machine vision can be used to identify irregularities in the products as they are manufactured. This ensures that product standards are met with precision.

• Production Optimization: By analyzing time series data from sensors installed on production lines, waste can be identified and reduced, thereby improving throughput and efficiency.

• Smart After Sales Support: Manufacturers can utilize AI-driven chatbots and predictive analytics to offer proactive maintenance, troubleshooting, and personalized assistance to customers.

• Personalized Product Recommendations: AI can be used to analyze user behavior and preferences to deliver personalized product recommendations via a mobile or web app, enhancing customer satisfaction and driving sales.

The integration of AI in manufacturing and automotive industries has revolutionized traditional processes, offering a plethora of opportunities for efficiency and innovation. With industrial IoT and advanced analytics, companies can now harness vast amounts of data to enhance inventory management and predictive maintenance. AI-driven demand forecasting ensures optimal stock levels, while predictive maintenance techniques minimize downtime and optimize equipment performance.

Moreover, as automotive manufacturers work toward autonomous driving, AI-powered image recognition and real-time data analysis become paramount. MongoDB Atlas emerges as a pivotal solution, providing flexible document modeling and robust storage capabilities to handle the complexities of Industry 4.0.

Beyond the manufacturing and automotive sectors, the potential of AI-enabled by MongoDB Atlas extends to logistics optimization, quality control, production efficiency, smart after-sales support, and personalized customer experiences, shaping the future of Industry 4.0 and beyond.