NaijaTechGuide

What is the objective of every asset-based manufacturing company?

All factors remaining constant, all manufacturers who want to stay in business are always looking for better ways to reduce production costs and increase production efficiency in order to enjoy larger profit margins… of course at the safety of workers.

But for this dream to become a reality, company machinery, and equipment, among other key components like manpower, need to function flawlessly and at their optimum.

However, this is not always the case.

One of the main challenges manufacturers face is unplanned downtime caused by machinery. It is even estimated that this kind of downtime costs manufacturers $USD 50 billion annually.

In this article, we are going to look at the 3 uses and applications of AI in manufacturing that have been used to curb a number of challenges that manufacturing companies face, including unplanned downtime, which 42 percent of the time is the result of asset failure.

If you didn’t know it yet, AI applications have taken the manufacturing sector hostage and are now transforming every aspect of it… including replacing humans with robots.

But this wave is not only sweeping the manufacturer, check out this other article where I outlined the other top trending industries where AI is heavily in use today.

Let’s now look into the top uses and applications of AI in manufacturing in greater detail.

1. Predictive Maintenance

Regular maintenance of production machinery and equipment is actually one of the most costly expenditures for a manufacturing company.

While a company might be tempted to skimp on this expense, or at least understate its importance, the ability to maintain this equipment in a continuous and flawless operational state directly affects the bottom line of any asset-reliant production company.

That being said, any unplanned downtime could mean huge losses and other associated costs to the company.

It is even estimated that asset failure is the cause of 42% of unplanned downtime and that unplanned downtime caused by machinery failure costs manufacturers $USD 50 billion every year.

How about the ability to predict such downtimes and take the necessary measures before they actually occur?

With the advancements in artificial intelligence, it is now possible to build predictive models that can foresee and predict future asset performance and possible malfunction.

Using AI technologies like machine learning and neural networks, engineers are able to design these smart systems that take out the reactive nature of machine maintenance and replace it with a more pragmatic approach.

Predictive maintenance is now one of the most common uses and applications of AI in manufacturing since it can save a lot of time and resources.

In fact, a predictive maintenance system will soon be a requirement for any manufacturing company that needs to know when the next failure of a machine would occur.

By implementing this alone, a manufacturer can drastically cut down the relatively high costs associated with unplanned downtime while also extending the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of production machinery and equipment.

2. Defect Detection

Defect detection, for the most part, has always been a manual process.

Most manufacturing assembly lines do not have automated systems or technologies put into place to identify defects in finished products.

In the event that a company has such a system in place, its functionality is more often than not pretty basic. A software engineer often needs to code the algorithm that is tasked with differentiating between the functional and defective components.

While this might sound like an improvement, there is a big bottleneck to this kind of approach.

These hand-coded systems can neither learn from past experiences nor integrate new pieces of information into the process to refine the effectiveness of the system.

And what’s the impact of this?

It means often these systems come up with a lot of false positives, that is to say, defects that are not actual defects. So a human worker is required to manually check and verify every false positive before making a conclusion.

Now, by incorporating artificial intelligence into the process, we can now have a smarter defect detection system that frees the human from the repetitive work of manual verification.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are used to build these defect detection systems and power them with self-learning capabilities. This is already being seen in industries like self-driving car production.

So manufacturers can then save tons of hours required for quality control by simply reducing false positives.

3. Human-Robot Collaboration

The use of artificial intelligence in the manufacturing sector will replace humans and render them jobless…

Such jittery statements have led to pessimistic feelings among many about whether AI will do more harm than good to the general public. It has led to serious discussions around AI and Ethics. And while the first part is true, that AI will replace some manual jobs, the second part is not entirely correct.

Why?

Well, because while more jobs are being taken over by robots, workers are being trained for more advanced positions like in product design and equipment maintenance.

In most manufacturing settings, collaborative robots working alongside human workers are now being deployed as an extra set of hands. That’s why there has been an increased demand for data scientists skilled in AI applications.

Now let’s differentiate between collaborative robots and the common autonomous robots.

Autonomous robots that are programmed to perform one specific task, have existed for centuries but collaborative robots are now taking this a step further by being able to perform multiple tasks.

Cobots, which is an abbreviation for collaborative robots, can learn various tasks like detecting and avoiding obstacles. With this cognitive ability and spatial awareness, these robots can work collaboratively alongside humans.

For example, a Cobot can be put to work in an automotive factory assembly line where it lifts heavy car parts and then holds them in place as the human workers secure them.

Conclusion

Just like in the eCommerce sector, the manufacturing sector is not exempted from challenges that they often have to surmount to stay in business.

Every typical manufacturer is frequently presented with different challenges such as unexpected machinery or asset failure as well as defective product delivery…

Both of which threaten the survival of any small or big brand. News of a faulty brand can spread pretty quickly today, thanks to social media, and consumers can quickly gang up and move to a competitor in no time really.

However, by leveraging AI and machine learning technologies, manufacturers can now achieve greatness by:

improving operational efficiency,
launching new products,
customizing product designs and
planning future financial actions.

In this article, we have looked at how AI is transforming manufacturing through powerful data science tools and technologies like Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Computer Vision.

What are some of the popular applications and uses of artificial intelligence in manufacturing that I didn’t mention in this list?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

10 Website Optimization Best Practices For 2021

1. Align Content for Search

Search intent (also called “user intent”) is the purpose of every online search query. It is a person’s thought of how to receive the information he/she needs by conducting a browser search. By learning how to align your content with the users’ intention, the more Google will recognize your blog/website as the best fit and eventually putting your page on the top of the search queries.

Based on a blog from Yoast, there are 4 types of search intent users usually conduct in order to get the results they need from the internet.

Information Intent

Many of the searches carried out by users on the internet are looking for information of some kind. Sports information, information about pension plans, information about SEO, etc. In these cases, users have a specific question or want to know more about a certain topic.

Navigational Intent

The second type of search intent is the browsing intent of the users. It is about those people whose intention is to access a specific web page. For example, those who search for Twitter often go to the Twitter page.

Transactional Intent

Third, we find the transactional search attempt. When a user searches the web for a product to purchase, consulting prices in search of his best option, it is said that he is focusing on a transactional search intention.

Commercial Investigation

Finally, we have the intention of commercial search, which differs from the transactional one in that the user does not seek to buy the product immediately but to investigate a product or service that could be interesting in the near future. Which TV looks the best,? What SEO strategy is right for me,? etc.

Over time, search engines like Google have become increasingly capable of accurately determining users’ search intent. If we add the fact that Google always seeks to classify the best-optimized pages that fit the search term, as well as the search intention of a specific search query, we have that our best asset to reach our target audience is to ensure that our posts and pages conform to the search intent of our audience.

2. Write an Attractive Title and Meta Description

The page title and meta description are the two most important meta tags on the page. Pages titles are clickable texts that pop up in search engine results and are very important from a web optimization perspective.

The meta description tag on the other hand is a small description of the content of the link that appears on the Google results page. In other words, the meta description tag is made up of a couple of phrases that should describe the content of the post or the page they accompany.

The meta description tag must follow a series of guidelines: first, it has to be eye-catching to capture the attention of potential readers. Likewise, it must contain the keywords of the post or page. These keywords should be in bold, and they should also match the user’s search criteria as closely as possible.

The length of the meta description tag that Google displays is 115 characters for mobile and 156 for PC. Ideally, it should not exceed 115 characters so that the description is complete in all formats.

3. Post Extended Content

In fact, search engines rank best on detailed expanded content. This research is supported by a number of studies, including the latest high-throughput paper research from SemRush.

A key study finding is that, compared to medium articles (901-1200 words), long articles (publications with more than 3,000 words) received a three-fold increase in traffic, a four-fold increase in share volume, and 3.5-fold increased backlinks.

4. Optimize your Images

Images play a vital role in enhancing your website visitor experience and SEO optimization. You will likely spend loads of time choosing the right photos to better your blog content, product sites, and various important areas on your website.

If used correctly, images will contribute to the overall SEO of your website and increase organic traffic. Website speed is an important ranking signal, and images typically contribute the most to overall page size. Therefore, you should optimize the image to increase speed in order to improve the overall performance of the website. Here are four ways to optimize images.

The most widely used image formats on the Internet are JPEG and PNG. Both formats use different compression methods, so the file size between them can be very different, according to Innotechnews. Viewing JPEG and PNG is the best image optimization practice. Using a tool for website image optimization that can help clear the background from your images can help optimize them, it would also be great if said tool can do this in a few seconds.

5. Build an SEO Friendly Landing Page

A very simple landing page may seem counterintuitive, but it eliminates visual clutter. You want your website visitors to focus on the prize – your call to action:

Use a custom URL: Make your links more readable. Custom links clearly set the tone and categorize content precisely.
Define your keywords: start by creating a list of keywords and corresponding topics that you think are of interest to your customers. These topics must be unique while being closely related to your business and your services.
Place your keywords strategically: The best method is to focus on one main keyword per page (never work on multiple pages) and work a secondary keyword phrase on each piece of that same content. Be careful, the goal here is not to find yourself competing with your own site on Google’s SERPs (SEO cannibalization phenomenon), so take the time to plan your topics.
Create backlinks: to constitute a good backlink, not only must the anchor of the link relate to the content of the target page, but also that the page issuing the link deals with a similar or identical topic.
Speed up your page: To optimize the loading time, you can work on the back-end and the front-end aspect of you. Note, however, that the front-end is the part that generates the most time nowadays.
Create shareable content: Embrace the fact that you write things that other people share. Make it cooler. Write it better. Put a spin on it. Hit a chord. Generate new research.

6. Keep the important Parts above the Fold

The term “above the fold” goes back to the newspaper. The most engaging stories were placed on the front page on the fold of the traditional newspaper so that customers would see the headlines and want to buy the newspaper.

You can do the same by keeping your landing page elements above the digital fold, the point where the user must scroll to get more information. This is harder than ever now that more people are using smartphones and tablets.

The good news is, you can use a scrolling map to easily pinpoint the average fold location on different devices and still keep your title, a short sentence or two of body text, and a front-and-center CTA.

7. Add Contact Information

You can provide contact information to your website visitors in many different ways. You can put your phone number or email address on your landing page, or you can use a contact form. Other companies, like Shopify, include links to their help centers.

Customers already know that they can find contact information, answers to frequently asked questions, and tutorials in the help centers.

8. Use Keywords for Content Optimization

Still, a large number of content writers, more than 50% of the publishers who use SEO Writing Assistant tools, do not fully understand the importance of having more than one keyword in their text. Optimizing your article for more than one keyword gives you the opportunity to appear in searches for more than one query.

The optimal number of target keywords that SWA recommended for use in articles is 15, according to the study. This tip is based on the top 10 ranking pages for specific keywords in a specific location.

Typically, we recommend including up to 20 different but relevant keywords per article. The important thing is that they are different to avoid keyword stuffing or keyword overload: the use of keywords in more than 3% of the text can become a Google penalty.

9. Be Consistent

While on-brand messaging is more important than ever, visual consistency can make a big difference in conversion rates too.

Let’s say you place a Facebook ad that leads people to your landing page. You want the text, images, and other aspects of your ads to be shown on your landing page.

They must look the same visually and provide the same services. Otherwise, your prospects will be lost or irritated.

10. Check for Plagiarism

Duplicate content is the greatest enemy of a strong and solid online presence. In some cases, it’s a necessity, but more often than not, it’s a manipulation of organic search results.

To avoid penalties from Google, the author should create unique content and always check the text for plagiarism or original text. In our research, 70% of the analyzed article authors use only a small part of duplicate content, which results in some citations or terms of reference.

Takeaway…

Technical SEO solves the issues that degrade your website’s organic exposure. It is essential to inspect the website for technical errors. You can perform a technical audit using SEO tools like SemRush, WooRank, and Ahrefs.

Here are the points you need to look out for when performing technical SEO:

Check mobile responsiveness and mobile-friendliness score.
Check out the sitemap.xml and robots.txt errors.
Determine crawling and indexing errors.
Inspect coverage issues under Google’s navigation console.
Check for server response errors such as 403 and 404.

Everyone needs to improve their website for great results. If you use the above best practices for website optimization, you’re ready to see some great leads when it comes to rankings and conversions.

Don’t forget to upgrade your site for Core Web Vitals and upgrade your server for blazing speeds. Have we missed something important? Share your web design best practices in the comments below!

Author’s Bio:

Yen Pedrajas is a digital marketing enthusiast who loves to share and write informative content about SEO, social media and creative marketing strategies. You can read her pieces at Medium.

She is currently the Lead Editor of Removal.AI. An AI technology that operates as a background remover tool that offers professional photo editing for eCommerce and all other app and web development purposes.