Medtech Snapshot: Rohullah Latif - Artificial Intelligence Impact on Manufacturing

AI is already transforming industries, helping companies predict and prevent operational failures before they happen. In this episode, Rohulla Latif shares how AI is driving efficiency in MedTech manufacturing and why organizations that embrace it now will gain a competitive edge.

Transcript:

Travis: Welcome back to another MedTech Snapshot! Today we're talking about AI, and with me today is Rohulla Latif. Rohulla is an OpEx (Operating Expense) and Manufacturing Engineering Executive in the medical device industry. So, Ro, looking forward to chatting with you here. As the question states--I'm curious to get your perspective on--if you look at how AI's changing medical device manufacturing operations, but especially as we look at production efficiency, improving yields, and patient safety, can you talk a little bit about that? and what maybe we can expect in the years to come? 
 
Rohulla: Absolutely, Travis, and thank you so much for that introduction. First off, AI is the science of making machines think like humans, or even better than humans. And to do that AI needs I need lots of data. Recently I was looking at the news: GM used AI to make their seatbelts 40% lighter, and Google used AI to reduce their overall energy consumption by 15%; so when it comes to production efficiency and improving yields, vision systems--whether it's for pick and place operations, or robotic arms, or inspections of critical parts--they're now being equipped with AI to determine patterns and to correct itself on the spot if mistakes are found. And most organizations, Travis, have building management systems, right? which house lots and lots of data and inputs--from sensors such as humidities, temperature, noise, and vibration. Well, now you can train AI to tell you when an equipment or utility is about to fail, or if a screw falls loose, or if there's excess vibration, or belt slips.  
 
Now with this, capabilities organizations can be proactive, instead of reactive. Ultimately all of these efforts will improve the patient safety. AI powered inspection systems will reduce the chances of human errors that can affect the patient downstream. AI-powered equipment and buildings will reduce the chances of equipment environmental failures. But, there are quite a few companies right now that are building AI-powered systems such as TensorIOT (Internet Of Things).  
 
But it's important to note AI is not for everyone, Travis, it's expensive, and if the organization does not have the ability to aggregate data it just won't work. I'm currently working on a few AI project related to MedTech, and based on my experience I'm advising all manufacturing organizations to bring a Subject Matter Expert to assess the organization and help draft an AI roadmap. And, Travis, I can assure you if companies don't do this right now they will fall behind to their competitions. In my experience it's best to get started now and develop strategic plans that include the implementation of AI.