The Rising Populary of Bausch + Lomb’s Daily Single-Use Contact Lens to a Massive Manufacturing Challenge. To keep with Demand, the Company Had to Quickly Expand Capacity at Two Production Facilities, in Ireland and New York.
The Higher Volume Also Drove Bausch + Lomb’s CEO, Brent Saunders, to Embrace New AI Software, WHICH HELPS MANUFACTURING WORKERS, TEST, AND FIX MECHANICAL ISSURE.
The Technology, Called Atlas and Produced by Arena AI, is designated to predicts Machinery willsim before they arise and weth alerts to maintenance workers so they can diagnose the errors and fixes.
Saunders Said that atlas was testted in rochester in 2023 and, by last year, haad been added to three new contact-lens production lines. “We’re Seeing Millions of Lenses Being Produced that we were wouldn’t have otherwise been able to produce with the atlas he,” Saunders Told Business Insider.
Some 77% of the Manufacturers Plan to Increase their He Investments Over the Next Year, Accity to a July Survey By KPMG of 183 he Manufacturing Leaders Across Eight Countries. Startups like Beauty Brand Prose, Pet Food Maker Spot & Tango, and Home Battery Producer Franklinwh Are Among the Companies Embracing He in New Manufacturing facilities that they’ve recently opened.
He is helping startups manufacture more pet food and batteries
Dylan Munro, the Chief Operating Office and Cofounder of Spot & Tango, Said the Company OpenD it first-government manufacturing facility near alentown, pennsylvania, Because the Company WANTER CONTROL THE QUALITY OF DOOD FOOD SELLS.
When the facility openied in late 2022, Employees were Responsible for manual Coordinating raw materials from suppliers, scheduling production based on the avilality of those ingredients, and booking to coordinate the Pickup and delivery of goods.
SINCE THEN, AI ADOPTION HAS ALLOWED SPOT & TANGO TO SCALE ITS PRODUCTION WITH THE NEED TO HIRE MORE EPLOYEES, Acciting to munro.
He Told Business Insider that His Company Began to Pilot an Agentic he tool sold by didero, an ai supply chain management startup. The tool Can Log Purchase Orders, confirm say, and Build appropriate production schedules on ingredient availability. Meanwhile, Spot & Tango’s Logistics Team Oversees these AI-Enabled Decisions.
A SMALL GROUP OF SPOT & TANGO WORKERS TESTED DIDERO AI TOOL WITH REAL-LIFE PROCUREMENT SCENARIOS FOR THREE MONTHS DIFT THE COMPANY MADE IT WIDELY AVAILABLE TO EPLOYEES, SAID MUNRO. The Company Said This System Now Fully Automates Around 60% of Purchase Orders.
Franklinwh Energy Storage, Which SELLS HOME BATTERIES INTENDED FOR POWER BACKUP DURING OUTages, is using it to Help Address Customer Service Requests and Within Production, Said Vincent Ambrose, The Coo at Franklinwh. It added it for the first time at a California Production Facility that open Earlier this year.
The Facility Features AI-Enabled Visual Insction, Which uses Cameras to Closely Monitor the Production of Lithium Iron Home Batteries and Flag Quality Issues, a procedure that workers used to do. The one model continuously learns from production data to predict problems before they Occur.
Franklinwh Also Produces in Asia, where he isn’t utilized, but coulded be added late. “If we upgrade those facilities, i’m sura we’ll take what we’ve learned from us manufacturing,” Said Ambrose.
Automation HELPED PROE LOWER ITS SHAMPOO-MAKING COSTS
Arnaud Plas, the Ceo and Cofounder of Prose, Said the Company’s Adoption of AI and Automation Has Lowered The Cost of Manufacturing. When the Company Initially Launched in 2017, Factory-Line Workers Assembled Bottles Manage, Which Contributed to A $ 5 Production Markup for Prose’s Made-to-Order, Custom Shampoos and Moisturizers, WHICH ARE DEVELOPED ON CUSTTOMERS ‘HAIR SURVEYS. Now, Autonomous robotics is Responsible for Mixing Prose’s Formula.
“We wanted that incremental cost to be under $ 1,” Said Plas.
The Company Achieved This Goal In 2024, partly by Automating Formula Mixing and Bottle Filling, but Also Due to the Application of 200 Algorithms that Prose’s Machine Learning and Data Scientists Developed. These algorithms assist with the Company’s Demand Planning, Product Formulations, Predictive Maintenance for Machines, and More Efficiently Scheduling Production, SO LEST DOWNTHE NEEDED TO CLEAN The Machinery.
The Company Added He and Automation Capabilities to a Second Manufacturying Facility in California, WHICH PROE OPENED IN JUNE. Plas Said that 90% of Prose’s Production Now Features Automation and the influence of he algorithms.
Munro, The Spot & Tango Coo, Said That He Continues to Field a Lot of Pitches from He Local Promising Big Supply Chain, but approaches with skepticism.
Munro Said that some he he Solutions Pitched by location can encounterseen technical challenges or Slower-Tharan-except adoption from workers.
“We don’t want to rush to implement,” he said.