In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, some innovations capture the public imagination like lightning in a bottle. OpenAI’s ChatGPT stands as a prime example. This large language model, capable of engaging in conversation and generating human-quality text formats, achieved a phenomenal feat: amassing 100 million users within just two short months of launch. To cite a precedent, it took YouTube 4 years to reach this level of users.
This rapid adoption rate suggests that ChatGPT isn’t just another app; it’s a potential game-changer that can transform how we work, and the manufacturing shop floor is no exception. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the use of ChatGPT in manufacturing, highlighting the example of ChatGPT for digital work instructions.
What Is ChatGPT?
Let’s start with the basics. If you’re not familiar with it yet, we’ll briefly explain what ChatGPT is. And who better to explain ChatGPT than ChatGPT itself?
ChatGPT is a form of generative AI, a tool that lets users enter prompts to receive humanlike images, text, or videos that AI creates. It’s an AI-based chatbot, search engine, and virtual assistant.
ChatGPT runs on a large language model (LLM), a machine learning technique that helps AI develop a deep understanding of language through analyzing language patterns. The LLM architecture is called the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT). Generative means that the system generates output based on its training data. That’s where the pre-trained comes from: the bot was first trained on an extensive database of textual resources to learn patterns and the inner structure of language
ChatGPT was developed by Open AI, the AI company that also created the image generator DALL-E.
ChatGPT for Digital Work Instructions
The shop floor is the beating heart of the manufacturing process. It is constantly evolving and facing new challenges, which is why it often needs to adopt new technologies. Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT present a game-changing opportunity to streamline production.
When workers must perform a new task, they need work instructions to learn how to manage it correctly. Traditionally, they turned to a paper manual. Industry 4.0 has introduced interactive, multimedia-rich documents that replace printed versions. Workers can now digitally access centralized documentation and follow step-by-step instructions.
A more recent innovation in digital transformation has been the introduction of AI tools such as ChatGPT. The chatbot can be leveraged to create, update, and optimize digital work instructions.
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Creation
Based on the input about the manufacturing process, ChatGPT can generate step-by-step instructions, ensuring clarity and detail.
ChatGPT can assist in creating digital work instructions by putting unorganized text into clear, step-by-step guidelines. You start by inputting a continuous, unstructured text with the necessary instructions. Then, you prompt ChatGPT to create structured instructions, specifying any formatting standards your organization follows, such as using simple language and writing in the third person. ChatGPT processes this input and organizes it into coherent, easy-to-follow steps, ensuring the instructions are tailored to meet specific requirements. This approach simplifies the creation of digital work instructions, making them more accessible and user-friendly.
Let’s put this to the test. We asked ChatGPT to put some unclear, out-of-order instructions in a clear step-by-step instruction plan.
Besides text, ChatGPT allows you to upload documents, images, or videos. Simply upload your existing materials; the tool will intelligently extract information to generate clear work instructions. This saves time by automating the documentation process and ensures that the instructions are visually supported. The final instructions seamlessly blend written details with visuals, enhancing understanding and clarity.
The tool also supports speech-to-text functionality, allowing you to convert spoken instructions into written form. This feature makes the documentation process faster and more efficient, as you can easily dictate the steps instead of typing them out.
Instead of creating new instructions from scratch, ChatGPT can help in revising and editing existing instructions to improve clarity, update steps, and incorporate new guidelines or process changes.
Once you have an output generated by ChatGPT, you can review and refine the instructions to ensure they meet your standards and requirements. This includes checking for accuracy, clarity, and completeness. You can also format the instructions according to your organization’s style guidelines, add any details or steps necessary, and include relevant images or diagrams to aid further understanding.
Customization
ChatGPT can help customize digital work instructions by allowing you to specify formatting standards and language preferences that align with your organization’s requirements. Tailored to your organization, ChatGPT can adapt to specifications such as:
- Tone and style
- Manufacturing process jargon
- Different audiences
- Quality control codes
- ISO compliances
- Safety protocol and regulation
ChatGPT also offers Custom Instructions, a feature that lets you personalize your conversations. It will tailor the output to your preferences without specifying them with each prompt. This is a way to ensure that all content aligns with your organization’s standards. For example, we asked ChatGPT to consider the following guidelines:
Based on the workers’ specific needs or skill levels, ChatGPT can customize instructions, providing more detailed guidance for novices or more concise steps for experienced workers.
Standardization & Formatting
ChatGPT can create standardized templates for work instructions, ensuring uniformity across different documents. It can format instructions to make them easy to read and follow, using bullet points, numbered lists, and appropriate headings.
can also translate work instructions into multiple languages for global manufacturing operations, maintaining accuracy and consistency.
Interactive Guidance
ChatGPT can act as a colleague to troubleshoot. When a worker is stuck on a specific step, for example, when a component doesn’t fit or a torque wrench isn’t calibrated correctly, the worker can converse with ChatGPT. Like a virtual and interactive assistant, it can answer questions in real time and offer solutions to resolve the issue.
It also provides a natural language interface where users can interact intuitively. Conversational interfaces such as these can make up for the loss of experience that the manufacturing industry is going through due to an aging workforce.
Documentation & Compliance
ChatGPT can assist in maintaining detailed records of work instructions, including version history and updates. It can ensure that instructions comply with industry standards and regulations by incorporating the necessary safety and procedural guidelines.
Real-Time Data Integration
Additionally, it can pull in real-time data from sensors on the assembly line. Suppose a particular step involves using a specific tool with a pre-set torque value. In that case, ChatGPT can dynamically display that information within the instructions, eliminating the need for separate reference charts.
ChatGPT on the Shop Floor
By personalizing, integrating real-time data, adapting to user needs, and offering conversational guidance, ChatGPT can transform static manuals into a dynamic and interactive learning experience.
ChatGPT can learn from your workforce and improve itself. By analyzing interactions and feedback, the AI architecture continuously learns to create a knowledge base that gets smarter with every use. To put it differently, human expertise lays the groundwork for AI capabilities to achieve peak shop floor performance.
Digitizing work procedures already takes away the need to flip through separate manuals, and leveraging ChatGPT into them makes documentation and updating easier.
ChatGPT + Azumuta
The article demonstrates a powerful example of how ChatGPT can be seamlessly integrated for digital work instruction creation. It showcases how speech-to-text technology, video processing, and ChatGPT’s generation abilities combine to transform instructional videos into transparent, digital formats instantly.
Combining the power of ChatGPT and Azumuta is transforming manufacturing. By following these eight simple steps, you can significantly reduce the time and effort needed for manual process documentation and decrease human mistakes, improving overall quality.
Preparing the video
1. Recording a Video
You record a video that captures the performance of the task.
2. Upload a Video
You upload the video to the platform. From here, the AI will take over and do the work for you.
Processing the video
3. Separating Audio and Video
ChatGPT will split the audio from the video. The audio track is sent to OpenAI’s Whisper API, which converts the speech to text, creating a transcript with timestamps indicating the start and end of each sentence.
4. Segmenting Video
The video is segmented into parts corresponding to the timestamps from the transcription.
Text Formatting & Structuring
5. Step Identification
ChatGPT processes the transcribed text, dividing it into coherent steps based on the content.
6. Formatting Instructions
Based on specifications set in the prompt, ChatGPT forms clear work instructions, tailored to company standards.
Video & Text Integration
7. Editing Video Clips
The video segments are cut according to the timestamps and linked to their respective steps.
8. Final Upload
Each video clip is uploaded and associated with the corresponding step in the digital work instructions.
Learn More About Azumuta’s Digital Work Instructions
Here’s the first step to have a paperless factory
Limitations of ChatGPT for Manufacturing
While ChatGPT offers a helpful tool kit, manufacturers should navigate its limitations. These include dependence on specialized training data, potential security vulnerabilities, accuracy constraints, and the ever-present need for human oversight. By acknowledging these challenges, manufacturers can harness ChatGPT’s potential for a safer and more efficient shop floor.
Data Dependence & Bias
ChatGPT’s effectiveness depends on the data it’s trained on. Manufacturing processes and equipment can be highly specialized. If ChatGPT isn’t trained on domain-specific data from the manufacturer, its recommendations and insights might be inaccurate or irrelevant. Additionally, biased data used for training can lead to biased outputs from ChatGPT, potentially causing issues with safety protocols or quality control measures.
Data Security
To integrate ChatGPT into your shop floor operations, you have to share data. Manufacturers should have security protocols to protect sensitive data from breaches or unauthorized access. Also, when the AI tool is used to monitor or train the workforce, worker privacy rules should be considered.
The AI assistant may use your content to train its models. There is an option to omit this in the privacy portal; contents from paying accounts ChatGPT Team or Enterprise aren’t used for training purposes either.
Limited Accuracy
When using ChatGPT, 100% accuracy is not guaranteed; ChatGPT even warns you. Have you seen the disclaimer under the prompt bar: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.”?
The limited accuracy has to do with the underlying generative model. When encountering a new or complex question, it will mimic how humans write, not think. This is why human intelligence is still and should always be the last step before sharing or implementing any output generated by ChatGPT.
Lack of Ethical Judgment
ChatGPT lacks ethical judgment and does not inherently recognize the importance of safety protocols or ethical considerations unless explicitly told to do so. Suppose the initial input from the employee does not mention critical safety warnings or guidelines for proper use. In that case, ChatGPT might produce technically accurate instructions but omit essential safety precautions.
Artificial Intelligence is Not Human Intelligence
This one speaks for itself. The AI software lacks the real-world understanding and critical thinking skills that you and I have. Its responses, though impressive, can be riddled with inaccuracies and may not consider ethical implications.
This doesn’t diminish its value but positions it as a powerful tool. Workers remain essential for oversight, with the ethical nuances and real-world knowledge that ensure ChatGPT’s outputs are accurate and responsible.
ChatGPT for Manufacturing
In the ever-evolving technological landscape, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has emerged as a transformative tool, quickly amassing 100 million users. This article explored its application in manufacturing, particularly for digital work instructions on the shop floor.
ChatGPT can generate, customize, and optimize instructions, making them more accessible and efficient by supporting video-to-text and speech-to-text functionalities. It ensures standardization, offers real-time interactive guidance and complies with industry standards.
However, challenges such as data dependence, security, accuracy, and the need for human oversight highlight that while ChatGPT enhances efficiency, it cannot replace the human workforce’s critical thinking and ethical judgment.
Looking ahead, the future of AI in manufacturing is promising as it continues to evolve and integrate with advanced technologies, potentially further transforming production processes. Nevertheless, collaboration between AI and human workers will be essential to realize its benefits while ensuring accuracy and ethical integrity.
