Operationalizing AI on the Shop Floor

AI is becoming more practical for industrial operations, but success depends on applying it to the right problems with the right data foundation. In this Ask an Expert webinar, Velotic explores how manufacturers can operationalize AI on the shop floor to analyze, monitor, predict, simulate, and optimize production processes.

This session explains the role of machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI in manufacturing, along with the challenges that can affect adoption, including data integration, ROI, security, legacy systems, and change management.

Why AI in Manufacturing Requires an Operational Foundation

Manufacturers generate data across automation systems, production equipment, SCADA platforms, historians, MES applications, maintenance records, engineering documents, and other operational systems. To apply AI effectively, this data must be accessible, contextualized, secure, and usable by the people responsible for daily operations.

The webinar emphasizes that AI should not be applied for its own sake. Instead, manufacturers should start with operational goals and identify where AI can help improve decision-making, simplify workflows, reduce manual effort, and support faster access to relevant production information.

In This Webinar, You’ll Learn

- How AI, machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI apply to manufacturing operations
- Why data integration, standardization, and contextualization are essential for industrial AI
- Common challenges that can limit AI adoption on the shop floor
- How AI can support SCADA alarm analysis and HMI screen generation
- How an AI assistant can help users interact with MES data using natural language
- Why user adoption, security, and change management are critical to successful AI initiatives

Key Topics Covered

- Understanding AI in Manufacturing

The webinar explains key AI concepts, including machine learning, deep learning, generative AI, large language models, and agentic AI. It also clarifies how these technologies can support different industrial use cases, from predictive analytics and anomaly detection to natural language access to operational data.

- Building the Data Foundation for AI

AI in manufacturing depends on reliable access to operational data. The session discusses the importance of integrating data from diverse factory systems, standardizing information across environments, and making data available in a secure and usable format for analytics and AI-driven applications.

- Applying AI Where It Makes Sense

The webinar emphasizes a practical approach to AI adoption. Rather than asking whether a product includes AI, manufacturers should consider what business or operational goals AI can help achieve. The session highlights the importance of focusing on use cases that support measurable value, stronger decision-making, and improved user productivity.

- Supporting SCADA Operations with AI

The webinar includes examples from the Proficy SCADA Next Gen Experience, showing how AI-driven capabilities can support alarm operations, alarm analysis, and HMI screen generation. The session demonstrates how users can review alarms, analyze alarm history, identify correlations, and access AI-assisted guidance for operational response.

- Chatting with MES Data

The session also demonstrates how an AI assistant can help users interact with Proficy Smart Factory MES data using natural language. Instead of manually building queries or reports, users can ask questions about downtime events, production output, loss categories, and operator activities, then receive tables, charts, and summarized insights.

- Addressing Security, Adoption, and Change Management

The webinar discusses the importance of designing AI solutions with security, authorization, and user adoption in mind. AI initiatives must account for data privacy, model access, user permissions, and the human element of change management to ensure solutions are trusted and used effectively.

Featured Demos

The webinar includes practical demonstrations of AI-enabled capabilities across SCADA and MES environments.

In the SCADA demo, you’ll see how users can inspect alarms, review alarm history, analyze alarm frequency and correlation, and use an AI assistant to ask questions about escalated alarms. The demonstration also shows how AI can help generate HMI screens based on selected equipment context.

In the MES demo, you’ll see how users can chat with production data using natural language. Examples include asking for recent downtime events, generating a Pareto chart of the most impactful downtime causes, comparing production output across units, identifying production loss categories, and reviewing recent operator activities. The demo shows how AI can help turn production data into usable insights without requiring users to manually build complex queries.

Who Should Watch

This webinar is designed for manufacturing organizations exploring how AI can be applied in practical, operational ways on the shop floor. It is especially relevant for operations leaders, plant managers, process engineers, controls and automation teams, MES and SCADA users, IT/OT leaders, manufacturing data teams, and continuous improvement professionals looking to improve access to production insights, reduce manual analysis, and support more informed operational decisions.

Watch the Webinar

Watch this on-demand Coffee with an Expert webinar to learn how Velotic is helping manufacturers operationalize AI on the shop floor through practical use cases for SCADA, MES, alarm analysis, production data access, and AI-assisted decision support.