Efficiency is particularly important in the manufacturing industry. Artificial intelligence in the form of AIOps plays a crucial role in better addressing this. Gartner defines this as the combination of big data and machine learning. In the manufacturing environment, one of the aims of AIOps is predictive maintenance. How it works: Based on data records and real-time information, technicians in production plants can keep production lines running without interruption. Predictive maintenance can reduce the failure rate by half. But this is just one part of the technology's extensive possibilities.

1. AIOps and Smart OOB: Support for network admins

Manufacturing companies depend on their network infrastructure being configured smoothly. To achieve this and enable their administrators to deliver the best performance, companies should take advantage of the synergies between smart out-of-band networks and AIOps. For example, administrators can improve network capacity planning and get advice from artificial intelligence on how to optimize connections. Smart OOB solutions also allow network engineers to manage the infrastructure from anywhere. The AI also offers automation mechanisms.

2. improved resilience through AI and OOB networks

If a network fails, in the worst case scenario this can paralyze an entire factory for hours. Artificial intelligence in the form of AIOps in conjunction with a smart out-of-band solution also provides advantages here. On the one hand, predictive maintenance is of course not only useful for production machines and their individual parts, but also for network components such as routers, switches or firewalls. A Smart OOB network drastically reduces the need for administrators to be on site. This option also reduces the mean time to repair (MTTR) and therefore increases the resilience of the network.

3 AI alleviates the shortage of skilled workers

Many employees in various areas of the industry still have great resentment towards artificial intelligence. It would be presumptuous to claim that AI has no potential for harm. But AI can also do a lot of good: for example, it can help to significantly mitigate the effects of the shortage of skilled workers, especially in the IT department of manufacturing companies. The digital colleague takes over and rationalizes the monitoring of servers and resource allocation, for example, so that human employees can take care of the more strategic aspects of the production process.

Artificial intelligence in the sense of AIOps relieves employees and enables them to work more efficiently. Replacing them is by no means the purpose of AI, even if this fear can naturally arise among many employees. Companies would therefore do well to train their employees well in dealing with their digital colleagues and thus provide them with future-oriented skills. In doing so, they take away their fear of being replaced and allow them to focus on more value-adding tasks.