How talking machines are revolutionising the mechanical engineering industry

Mechanical engineering is one of the mainstays of the German economy and often stands for innovation, precision and efficiency. But despite these strengths, the industry is facing significant challenges, which we repeatedly hear about in technical discussions with our customers. In this blog post, we focus on the challenges of monitoring and maintaining machines: How can a machine be used optimally? And if it does break down, how can it be quickly put back into operation?

One way of meeting these challenges is the talking machine – our idea of an assistant bot that keeps an eye on a machine's vital signs and can advise the operator if necessary.

The challenges our customers face in mechanical engineering

Due to our consulting work, we are in frequent contact with our customers in the manufacturing industry. We talk to a wide range of people from different departments, from plant operation to plant management and service.

Complexity

In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for machine-building companies to find qualified personnel. Many experienced professionals are retiring, while not enough young people are entering the field. The shortage of skilled workers leads to a heavy workload for the existing staff and increases the risk of errors and inefficient processes.

Modern machines are highly complex and have extensive control software and dashboards that display a variety of KPIs (key performance indicators). The health of the machines, especially over time, is crucial. However, it is often not easy to interpret this information quickly and accurately.

Another challenge is the multitude of documents available for each machine. These documents often exist in different revisions and are not always easily accessible. In the event of a fault, untrained workers often have to search for solutions in a very time-consuming manner, which reduces efficiency and increases costs.

Old devices

Old machines are often equipped with retrofit solutions, the documentation is outdated or cannot be found. In some cases, knowledge carriers are no longer with the company.

Profitability

Even if companies are able to find good new employees, a high level of investment is often required in employee training. Error analyses are time-consuming and costly. To visualise new information, the machine dashboards often have to be adapted, and the resulting development costs drive up prices.

Collaboration

Teams are becoming more and more international, which is why multilingual applications are becoming more and more important. Some information is not available in all languages. Often, our customers do not want to access information about the machine on the display, but actually talk to the machine. An example of this is a service technician who is currently working under the machine with dirty hands.

Self-service

The trend towards improved self-service has also reached the mechanical engineering industry. Our customers want to offer their end customers a better service. The end customers should be able to find all the important information quickly and easily, without spending hours searching. They also want to be able to maintain the machines more independently.

The talking machine: our innovative approach

To meet these challenges, we have developed an innovative concept based loosely on the adesso motto ‘We make it easy’: the talking machine. Our solution integrates a chat interface, based on an LLM, into the existing IoT platform for smart connected products. This interface makes it possible to easily and intuitively communicate with the machine and the associated documents.

What the talking machine offers:

Real-time information

The talking machine provides real-time information about the machine's health and its progress over time. This makes it possible to identify potential problems early and take appropriate action.

Efficient troubleshooting

In the event of a fault, the talking machine can quickly and accurately suggest solutions. By analysing the available documentation and data, the system can identify the most likely causes and provide appropriate recommendations for action.

Time and cost savings

By reducing the time needed to search for information and troubleshoot, companies can achieve significant cost savings. The efficiency of production processes is increased and machine downtime is minimised.

Intuitive operation

Thanks to the talking machine, even untrained personnel can easily interact with the complex machines. The chat interface allows them to ask questions in plain language and get immediate answers without having to search through manuals or documentation. It is even conceivable to use speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) to communicate directly with the machine via a microphone and loudspeaker, for example those of a mobile phone. This can be done while working on the machine. This allows technical personnel to focus on the machine and receive relevant information acoustically.

Conclusion & summary

The mechanical engineering industry is facing major challenges, particularly with regard to the shortage of skilled workers and the increasing complexity of machines. The talking machine offers an innovative solution that makes it possible to overcome these challenges. With its intuitive user guidance, provision of real-time information and efficient troubleshooting, companies can significantly increase their efficiency.

Of course, we also see a whole range of challenges, some of which we have to address during development. For example, which system descriptions or context variables are the right ones?

We would be happy to demonstrate our current development status and openly discuss the challenges and solutions with you.