Artificial Intelligence – Our cup of tea needs a piece of cake on the side

April 30, 2019

You have probably wondered that what sense would you sacrifice if you had to. I have also wondered this, but not yet decided that which sense to give away. I’m sure though that vision would be the last one to go. There’s so much to see in this world and everything is becoming more and more visual. 

Yet, technology is starting to compete with our inbuilt characteristics. One example of this is presented in a study considering the importance of a mobile phone to young millennials in the UK°. Almost one in four (23 %) would give away one of their five senses instead of their mobile phone and the most preferred sense was the sense of smell (64 %). So, no wonder it’s difficult to say to a teenager that they should get off their phone.

Improving, not losing our senses

But where does this introduction lead us? As you probably already know, we in TT Gaskets have decided that technology is the only way to stay in the game. And we want to utilize technology in a way that it doesn’t get us (too) addicted as mobile phones do, but instead enhances our performance and creates new possibilities. The technology shouldn’t also paralyze any of our senses, but rather improve them. 

How do we think that these super senses could then be achieved? For the best of our knowledge, Artificial Intelligence is the answer. And before I (or anyone else, for that matter) start to preach about a dystopian world dominating Skynet, the AI we are thinking of is a little tamer. Machine and Deep Learning could be vital in our ongoing improvement process along with RFID and many others.

DATA and Superhuman abilities

Both ML and DL require data to be useful, but luckily there’s plenty of it. It just needs to be processed and cleaned up before use. But we are quite sure that putting a little effort and elbow grease to the data processing is worth it. ML could give our production workers Superman-like senses and strength and DL could help our office workers to solve problems with superhuman intelligence. 

And as always this isn’t just blowing hot air. We have already started to develop our first implementations of AI and can’t wait to utilize them. Again, we have got over the highest obstacle, the beginning, and we are willing to continue with the iterative process. There’s plenty of different paths along the journey to a more productive and safer future, but we consider AI as being more of a highway. Therefore, we would like to ask you to join the ride and enjoy!

°The study can be found from the link below: 

https://media.scmagazine.com/documents/348/tappable_press_release_86870.pdf

RFID – Our cup of tea?

April 1, 2019

The word productive was a large motivator for my M.Sc. thesis, I managed to wrap up in November. The thesis considered the possibilities of RFID technology in our field of industry, and especially how it could enhance the performance of both our and our customer’s business. N.B. The abbreviation RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and the technology is used e.g. for the contactless payment in our credit cards. But how exactly would RFID technology provide productivity?

Unfortunately, that is still exclusive info, but hopefully, soon enough we’ll have something to tell. On the other hand, if you think about increasing productivity, you’ll figure out that it must have something to do with saving time, money or both. And usually, the easiest way of saving time (and money) is to do things correctly in the first place. That is the sweet spot we are trying to hit with our new solution(s).

Saving time, money and nerves

Last time I gave you an example where I and my colleague were collecting a large number of products from the warehouse and started wondering how something could be done differently to save time, money and nerves. We came into a conclusion that searching and counting the products were the most time-consuming tasks. I also gave a few examples of technologies that could help us.

RFID needs to be added to this list as well. It provides possibilities for error-reduction and automation which are vital keys for increasing productivity and safety. RFID is not a panacea, but it deserves its place in the development toolbox. And I think we are on our way to find the right purposes for it. Most importantly, we have started the journey and with pleasure would like to ask you to join us!

An Introduction to TT Smart Talk

March 1, 2019

Here’s an example of why I’m currently working in TT Gaskets to enhance the operations of the company with different technologies. In October 2018 we were picking a large number of products in our warehouse with full steam to get supplements for our customer. We noticed that the task took the two of us working on it over a full workday.

The most time-consuming tasks were to find the products from the shelf and to count them. And basically, they are completely irrelevant tasks to be made by hand, because a machine would be much more efficient and accurate. My colleague justifiably asked why we don’t have a “robot” shelf that would complete the collecting nearly on its own.

Even though an automated shelf would be an efficient solution for the task, the costs are a “bit” too high for now. But luckily there are cheaper solutions available. A simple solution would be to print the list of products in the shelf code order, instead of product number order. But that still leaves a lot of room for error because a printed list is manually operated and gets easily lost. So why don’t we just simply get rid of the list?

Speech Driven Inventory Systems and More

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple as it sounds and is definitely not going to happen tomorrow or next week, I can bet on that. But easily in a couple of years, you could wear smart glasses that show you directly in augmented reality which products need to be picked and where they are. Meanwhile, you can update the inventory with speech, or it can be completely automated. And this is not even science fiction, but instead similar inventory management systems are currently in use. On top of that, the user experiences have been great. You can google it yourself with search phrases such as voice control or smart glasses in warehouse management.

That’s not even all, folks. There’s plenty of different technologies on the field that could and should be implemented in everyday business. My purpose is not to complicate our routines, but instead, make them easier and even get rid of some unnecessary ones. I’m aware that the needs differ from department to department and from company to company and that’s why it’s vital to find the right tools for each purpose. And to get started. Hopefully, in a few years, we have embedded new technologies so well to our business, that we can only wonder how did we get along in the past.

The Best Way For You to Utilize Your Valuable Time

Finally, I’m challenging you to think critically about your daily business and routines to find room for improvement. Is there something that could be done differently or even be left out? You probably already have processes sorted out to serve different purposes, but they are certainly not perfect. Challenging the status quo makes improvement and development possible. And keep in mind that the purpose is not to make you or anyone else unemployed but conversely make your time more valuable.

Let’s get started and show that in order to improve productivity we don’t have to do more hours and lower our salary.
Together we can build a more stable and productive future!