{"id":6708,"date":"2023-11-26T08:10:27","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T08:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationisrael.org.il\/en\/?post_type=article&p=6708"},"modified":"2023-11-26T08:10:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T08:10:28","slug":"who-did-you-call-low-tech","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/innovationisrael.org.il\/en\/article\/who-did-you-call-low-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Did You Call Low-Tech?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A pioneering unicorn that seeks to improve factory production processes by using sensors to listen to industrial machines, and a determined family company that focuses on enhancing factories\u2019 productivity via computer systems that monitor the production floor, are generating a change in the world of manufacturing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the Israeli company Augury <\/strong>is a member of the unicorn club (a unicorn is a company with an estimated value of over 1 billion dollars), it met with skeptical reactions when it was established in 2011 by the CEO Saar Yoskovitz<\/strong> and Chief Product Technological Officer Gal Shaul<\/strong>, at a time when everyone was talking about mobile apps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInvestors looked at us strangely. \u2018Enterprise, hardware, and industry \u2013 are you crazy?’\u201d, Shaul says, but the two were not deterred. Israeli investors also signed up at a very late stage. \u201cWe needed a very special type of investor who likes investing at high risk in exchange for a chance to change the world. But the Innovation Authority was there for us from the beginning, and we received significant support from the technology community\u201d, Shaul says. \u201cToday, a decade later, Israeli industry has also begun to adopt this direction \u2013 and leading forces such as Bazan are both interested and advancing these trends\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was the first startup for both of us and we spent long hours learning the other aspects of a startup besides technology. There were two years of learning and experimenting \u2018on the go\u2019. The joy of learning still plays an important role in everything we do. It\u2019s one of the strongest aspects of our team that already numbers 400 \u2013 a thirst to learn and develop in all areas \u2013 personal, technological, and in research\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Augury\u2019s products are revolutionary as far as category and market building are concerned. As Shaul explains: \u201cWe don\u2019t have anyone to copy from. There is no existing product that we are taking to a new market. We are also in a very special place as far as building the categories and this product type within the industry are concerned. We are very grateful that this has been made possible. It\u2019s an assimilation process that requires time and the entire ecosystem needs a bit more patience to learn, to experiment, to gain an impression, and to adopt it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike the army or cyber security, traditional industry in Israel is not the alpha market where tests are being conducted\u201d. The trial stage was therefore conducted overseas, and Augury returned to Israel with a working product and proven results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Augury addresses the health of production processes in manufacturing factories, and especially, in the worlds of process production. The product with which the company started out was sensors attached to industrial machines that \u201clisten\u201d to the machines and use IoT to warn of faults or future disruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sensors are located on every one of the machine\u2019s bearings, identify magnetic signals, vibrations, and temperature, and send the data to the cloud. An AI system in the cloud processes the data and sends insights and instructions about the machine\u2019s operation to the field team\u2019s dashboard. 80% of the warnings that Augury gives its clients occur in reality i.e., the end client checks, replaces, fixes things etc. In other words, the factory benefits from a higher degree of certainty and fewer cases of \u2018putting out fires\u2019, as well as a better ability to predict future events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Augury calls this \u201cmachine health\u201d but they didn\u2019t stop there and continued to address the health of the production processes themselves. As Shaul explains: \u201cWe optimize the products\u2019 quality and reduce environmental damage. Both these aspects provide us with a broad view of production lines in large factories that want to revolutionize the way processes are currently created and to enhance profitability, to empower their employees, and to protect the environment\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This combination is not a trivial one \u2013 but it is possible. The process requires more accurate insights about events in the factory \u2013 whether with the machines or in production \u2013 however obtaining these insights involves a transformational-level organizational change. In other words, this means working according to what the sensors report on a specific situation on the ground instead of working according to an existing protocol and implementing changes according to a fixed schedule as previously practiced. This requires empowerment of the field teams and their access to information instead of merely following the calendar and obeying instructions. The change enables a company to be far more flexible and save resources, but also requires foregoing some of the certainty inherent in daily planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Shaul, adopting Augury\u2019s technology leads to a 75% decline in negative \u201csurprises\u201d on the production line. The machines break down less, but the factory needs to learn how to react to developing situations and not to the predetermined workplan relating to upgrades and maintenance in order to achieve better quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After successfully dealing with the machines, Augury is now looking at the next stage: assisting manufacturing factories look at the health of all production processes from a broad perspective. In other words, to integrate production, processes, and personnel rather than looking at each factor separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis process has several stages \u2013 in the data, automation and optimization that enable autonomy in the production process and decision making. If, for example, we look at what\u2019s happened to fields such as digital marketing, we can see that in the past, every decision was taken manually, but today it\u2019s possible to manage everything almost automatically. The change took about 20 years. We believe that the manufacturing world will also get to this stage once there is sufficient confidence to work with an automatic pilot. We hope to transfer a more significant portion of the decision making to AI-based decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second stage is to expand to further industries. Augury, that began with traditional industrial companies has, in the past two years, also entered the energy market and is examining other similar markets to help them generate the digital revolution as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The third stage is global expansion. Most of Augury\u2019s sales today are to large corporations in the US and the aspiration is to expand their scope. \u201cWe are in the growth stages\u201d, Shaul explains, \u201cAlthough Augury sells to more than a hundred of the largest industrial companies in the world, we are just beginning because the industry is huge\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, Augury also invests in creating a community of people active in fields of machine health and production processes\u2019 health. \u201cThese people want to be agents of this revolution\u201d, says Shaul. \u201cWe help them expand distribution. We look at the combination of machines and people and believe that it enables us to achieve an improvement in our lives in every possible way. We build things that are supposed to serve and enable the manufacturing world to succeed in the long-term and hope to be positive partners in this journey and in a better future\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we examine what the digital revolution facilitates or requires \u2013 or why a revolution is even needed \u2013 we understand that there are changing global perceptions about how production is implemented and the factors facilitating quality production. \u201cEveryone leading this industry today \u2013 from small-scale to the largest industries \u2013 understands that if we do not look after the planet, we simply won\u2019t have a place to live\u201d, says Shaul. \u201cThis understanding compels us to not only act differently than we have until today, but also to change our relationship with the planet\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The path to change lies, according to Augury, in the empowerment of people in all fields, particularly people working on production lines for years. \u201cThey have received only limited empowerment until today\u201d, Shaul emphasizes. \u201cThese weren\u2019t sought-after jobs. High-tech talents turned to high-tech not to manufacturing. People stayed in factories for years because they had no other alternatives. Some of the fuel for success is that people have alternatives. Instead, production workers were taken for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTechnology enables us to dream of another form of work\u201d, Shaul continues. \u201cIn the past, we knew quite accurately how to forecast future waves of technology, but we couldn\u2019t predict how they would impact our lives. This is true of both AI and generative AI. To dream differently, people must be empowered. We need to give them other tools and learn to listen to them. That\u2019s what a revolution looks like to me. With people\u2019s ability to dream of a better world, we can really generate a revolution. A sequence of small changes can also constitute a revolution. If we look at what a production process looks like today, what it looked like ten years ago, and how it will look in another ten years, you won\u2019t be able to identify the factory. That\u2019s a revolution\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn recent years, various traditional industries have undergone an accelerated process of integrating digital technologies, sensors, control, and automation (sometimes called \u201cthe fourth industrial revolution\u201d or \u201cIndustry 4.0\u201d). This has opened the door to the introduction of Artificial Intelligence into manufacturing processes, whether to increase outputs, reduce inputs, resolve bottlenecks, improve safety, enable optimal function of employees and machines or to economize the supply chain. To a large degree, Artificial Intelligence enables us to reap the benefits of previous years\u2019 large-scale investments. Although Israel is not considered a leading power of heavy industry, we can definitely take pride in a series of companies (and even unicorns) that integrate Artificial Intelligence into their products and allow heavy industry worldwide to leap directly into the 21st<\/sup> century\u201d. Yehuda Segev<\/strong>, an electric and electronics engineer who worked for years in control and computerization in leading companies, established Amitec <\/strong>in 1996 when his vision was to find advanced solutions for the industry. His wife \u2013 Hanita Segev, a systems analyst \u2013 subsequently joined the company and together, the couple formed a team of programmers to characterize and develop smart products for advancing the industry. Amitec, led by Yehuda and Hanita as joint CEOs, is currently developing software and control solutions for the industrial, defense and energy sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amitec was among the first companies in Israel to begin developing manufacturing execution systems (MES) for factories \u2013 the stage following the manual control and reporting systems that Israeli industry was used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnlike the US and Europe, these systems were unknown in Israel in 2000\u201d, Segev says. \u201cWe needed to bring articles written at large companies to CEOs and COOs and explain to them why they need it. Until then, the managerial level received information from the operator about what was happening during the production process. The entire operation was based on Excel files and paperwork that the operators wrote. That\u2019s how they knew the factory\u2019s output at the end of the day \u2013 but they didn\u2019t know the true potential\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The role of MES is to provide data automatically, independent of the operator. The information passes directly to the management and allows them to make real-time decisions, to solve problems, to alter production processes etc. The ultimate objective is to enable the managerial level\u2019s control of events, with the stated objective of this process being to improve the factory\u2019s productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a constant process of improvement\u201d, Segev explains. The system gathers data, analyzes it, and helps to understand what is happening so that it will ultimately be possible to improve output, reduce waste, and improve quality. When the system is connected, it offers insights as to which of the operators is best equipped for each action, which machines are best suited to produce a certain product, how much raw material has been used, and which batches have been used etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In such situations, management can make decisions at each stage of the production process \u2013 from the question as to which raw material to use to the decision how to correctly time tasks without wasting time. \u201cThe fact is that once the system helps make decisions in a more correct and computerized way, the work becomes more efficient\u201d, Segev explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor example, with regard to a raw material \u2013 something that is relevant for every industry \u2013 there is a minimum standard quantity but if you use too much, you incur a loss. That\u2019s why we added control systems that check the product after the material was added and provide an indication on how it should be fixed, it if necessary. These are aspects of planning online monitoring and quality control. The system also has aspects that monitor procedural parameters such as speed, temperature, pressure etc., and which can issue an alert of an imminent irregularity that may shut down activity, thereby preventing such an eventuality\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After addressing the problem of production floor management, Amitec transferred its focus to management of the factory\u2019s energy and infrastructures. \u201cEnergy is the third resource after raw materials and personnel\u201d, Segev says. The system they developed oversees the means with which the systems are operated: electricity, water, gas, fuel etc. All these must be in a state of maximum readiness in order to avoid shutdown and to ascertain the energy\u2019s cost to the factory. In case of high consumption, the system issues an alert which enables the operator to assess and rectify the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The system also facilitates maintenance management, including preventative maintenance and fault prediction. In other words, it learns the processes of all the infrastructures and production machines and identifies potentially problematic anomalies.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHealthy Production Processes<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s Time for a Digital Revolution<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Empowering Production Workers<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Dror Bin, CEO \u2013 Israel Innovation Authority<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nFrom Production Floor to New Energy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n