Google LLC said early today that its Google Cloud computing unit will work with the industrial giant Siemens AG to create new artificial intelligence products that can help to optimize process and improve productivity on factory floors.

The idea is to pair Google’s cloud, AI and machine learning technologies with Siemens’ factory automation systems to help manufacturers digitally transform their operations, the companies said.

The companies are a good fit on paper, at least. Google Cloud is widely considered to be at the forefront of AI and machine learning, while Siemens is one of the world’s leading suppliers of software and systems aimed at helping factories run more smoothly.

The manufacturing industry is in dire need of an automation boost, Google and Siemens argue. They note that though many industrial processes these days are data-driven, the majority of manufacturers are still using legacy software combined with multiple computing systems to analyze the information that comes out of their manufacturing plants. Doing so is inefficient and resource-intensive, and companies need to perform frequent manual updates and checks to ensure their data is accurate, they said.

Moreover, Google and Siemens said that although a limited number of manufacturers have begun implementing AI at some plants, a lot of these projects are isolated “islands” across the plant floor. Manufacturers have generally struggled to implement AI at scale throughout their global operations, they said.

In a nutshell, these are the problems Google and Siemens want to fix. The plan is to integrate Google’s data cloud and AI and machine learning services with Siemens’ Digital Industries Factory Automation tools to help companies harmonize their factory data and run cloud-based analytics and AI across it, and deploy algorithms at the network edge. By doing so, manufacturers will be able to run new applications at the edge of the network, Google and Siemens said. Examples include a computer vision app that can visually inspect products to ensure quality and algorithms that can predict the wear-and-tear on assembly line machines.

Axel Lorenz, a Siemens vice president, promised that the combination of Google’s AI expertise with his company’s industrial edge systems will be a “game changer” for manufacturers. The companies haven’t announced any official products yet, but they said their cooperation will make it far simpler for manufacturers to deploy AI at the industrial edge at large scale, automate mundane tasks and improve productivity.

“By simplifying the deployment of AI in industrial use cases, we’re helping employees augment their critical work on the shop floor,” said Dominik Wee, managing director of manufacturing and industrial at Google Cloud.

“Like all functional areas of the enterprise, the shop floor has tremendous upside when it comes to uptake of the AI capabilities,” Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE.

Image: Siemens