Real-Time Insights: Driving Performance with Adaptive Feedback
Out of the 800 manufacturers it surveyed, Deloitte’s Digital Maturity Index 2023 found that 98% had initiated a digital transformation to operations. That journey has continued ever since. The 2024 Future of the Digital Customer Experience study concluded that manufacturers are expanding their use of digital connections to improve performance and overall services. A significant benefit of this trend in the industry is the real-time insights and adaptation that it provides. As written by Emmet Cole for Association for Advancing Automation, “With continuous monitoring, machine learning, and path planning features, real-time adaptation offers significant benefits to end users, from enhanced efficiency and productivity to improved safety and greater flexibility in handling product mixes.”
Adaptive Feedback in Adaptive Manufacturing
A large part of the digital shift in operations is known as adaptive manufacturing. Adaptive manufacturing, which is heavily driven by the influence of AI, can be seen in sectors from aerospace to automotives. The adaptive design that comes with it allows for enhanced data analyzation, pattern and equipment failure prediction, and timely maintenance.
Another improvement that comes with elements of adaptive manufacturing and design is adaptive feedback and control. Feedback control typically consists of an input and output for data as well as sensors and a controller that dictate the system. Shawn Dietrich explains at Control.com that “With adaptive control, the system is monitored and automatically adjusts its own parameters so that the feedback control system will run as expected…The process output is monitored and the parameters are adjusted to keep the process operating at optimal control.”
Essentially, real-time insights, feedback, and control collaborate to create a resilient system that requires less intervention to course correct. The feedback that is produced in the moment becomes the foundation of what allows AI and technically enhanced operations to more efficiently prevent and address any potential issues.
Sources:
● “2025 Manufacturing Industry Outlook” - John Coykendall, Kate Hardin, and John Morehouse, Deloitte
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/manufacturing/manufacturing-industry-outlook.html
● “Industrial Automation’s Biggest Challenges: Real-Time Adaptation” - Emmet Cole, Association for Advancing Automation
● “Revolutionizing Production: How Adaptive Manufacturing is Transforming the Custom Parts Industry” - Leon Adelstein, Medium
● “Adaptive Design in Machinery: How AI is Enabling Customizable Production Solutions for 2024” - Eric Whitley, Machine Design
● “Closing the Loop: Feedback, Feedforward, and Adaptive Control” - Shawn Dietrich, Control.com
https://control.com/technical-articles/closing-the-loop-feedback-feedforward-and-adaptive-control/