The status that applied sciences get pleasure from amongst world companies and customers tends to obscure the mundane efforts and processes required to convey merchandise to market. That is very true for mass-produced {hardware}, together with PCs and smartphones, whose success is determined by watchful distributors overseeing large, terribly complicated manufacturing processes.
Effective planning, scheduling and efficiency are important to hitting or lacking manufacturing targets and satisfying paying clients and shareholders. That is what makes Lenovo’s new Smart Production Planning System significantly intriguing. Lenovo’s answer was just lately named a finalist by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) for its Franz Edelman award for operational achievement. Let’s take into account it additional.
Manufacturing challenges
To start, what makes planning the manufacture of frequent merchandise, comparable to laptop computer PCs, so tough? Consider first what is perhaps known as “customer variables.” As demand and markets for tech merchandise have developed, distributors differentiate themselves by providing purchasers all kinds of options and choices to select from.
In the case of laptops, these sometimes embrace separate manufacturers and product households for particular use instances, comparable to 2-in-1s, shopper/scholar laptops, enterprise options, gaming laptops and cell workstations. Then there are non-compulsory selections, comparable to upgrades for CPU/GPU, reminiscence, storage, shows, networking, working methods and productiveness apps. Plus, there are safety and different companies, warranties, equipment and peripherals.
This is all nice for patrons, together with organizations that may successfully customise orders in order that new laptops deal with their particular enterprise necessities and use instances, in addition to the preferences of particular person customers. But guaranteeing that these merchandise are assembled accurately and shipped on time poses vital planning challenges.
Fulfilling buyer orders sometimes includes dividing manufacturing processes into duties which can be assigned to particular manufacturing traces. Planning and scheduling particular person duties contain different points, together with workers availability, tools and course of standing and the supply of tens of 1000’s of parts and uncooked supplies. Effectively managing these situations whereas avoiding identified and unknowable pitfalls is what retains manufacturing unit planners up at night time.
Lenovo’s AI-enabled answer for complicated processes
What has Lenovo achieved to handle these challenges? Developed by Lenovo Research, the Smart Production Planning System combines AI applied sciences and mathematical algorithms, together with rising sequential planning algorithms based mostly on deep reinforcement studying, into an easy-to-use optimization decision-making engine for manufacturing. The system additionally helps autonomous studying: The longer it runs, the smarter it will get.
The Smart Production Planning System has been deployed at Lenovo’s LCFC (HeFei) Electronics Technology facility, the corporate’s largest world analysis and manufacturing base. The LCFC’s 1000’s of workers fulfilled 690,000 buyer orders final 12 months, using distinctive manufacturing processes and greater than 300,000 completely different supplies to provide over 500 particular PC merchandise.
So how did the Smart Production Planning System do? According to Lenovo, manufacturing planning processes on the LCFC have been decreased from six hours to 90 seconds. Additionally, key efficiency indicators have additionally improved considerably. The LCFC facility’s order success fee has elevated by 20 p.c and productiveness has elevated by 18 p.c.
The System additionally helps large-scale collaboration and multi-objective duties, comparable to…
