Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way companies operate, analyse information and make decisions. In the industrial sector, this evolution opens up new opportunities to optimise processes, anticipate problems and improve production performance.
Against this backdrop, Flow MESsIA emerges as a Flowtech project aimed at integrating Artificial Intelligence into Flow Manufacturing, paving the way for a new generation of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) that are more intelligent and focused on decisionmaking.
Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Industry
Industrial digitalisation has enabled companies to collect and monitor increasing volumes of information about their production processes.
Data on equipment, production times, consumption, downtime, quality and operational performance is becoming more accessible through industrial management systems.
However, having access to more data does not necessarily lead to better decisions.
The real challenge lies in interpreting this information, identifying patterns, anticipating deviations and turning data into actionable insights.This is precisely where Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly relevant. Its integration into industrial systems creates new opportunities to analyse data and support decisionmaking, bringing technology closer to the real needs of manufacturing operations.
Flow MESsIA: The Evolution of Flow Manufacturing
For over 18 years, Flowtech has been developing Flow Manufacturing, an MES solution that enables companies to monitor, control and optimise their production processes.
With the development of Flow MESsIA — MES powered by AI, Flowtech aims to take another step forward in the evolution of this platform by combining three fundamental areas:
- Production Engineering, to understand industrial processes and operational
- challenges
- Data Science, to analyse information, identify patterns and uncover relevant
- relationships.
- Artificial Intelligence, to support data interpretation, anticipate problems and
- recommend actions.
The goal is to develop a system capable of going beyond data collection and visualisation, actively contributing to faster, more informed decisions adapted to the production environment.
From Production Control to Intelligent Decision Support
Manufacturing Execution Systems play a fundamental role in connecting production planning with execution. They enable companies to monitor shop-floor activities, control operations and access up-to-date information on industrial performance.
With Flow MESsIA, the ambition is to take these monitoring capabilities further through a
more intelligent and context-aware approach.
The project aims to develop capabilities that will enable companies to:
- Understand the operational context by connecting different data sources and
- production conditions.
- Anticipate potential problems through data analysis and pattern recognition.
- Identify improvement opportunities to support the optimisation of production
- processes.
- Recommend actions in real time, facilitating responses to situations that require
- intervention.
- Support operators, supervisors and managers by providing relevant information
- for different levels of decision-making.
These capabilities represent the development objectives of Flow MESsIA and reflect Flowtech’s vision for a new generation of industrial management systems.
A €1 Million Investment in Industrial Innovation
To support this technological evolution, Flowtech has announced an investment of €1 million in Artificial Intelligence as part of the development of Flow MESsIA.
Supported by the SIID – Business R&D programme, the project has a two-year development timeline and benefits from the scientific and technological expertise of INESC TEC.
The initiative will follow the CRISP-DM (Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining) methodology, a structured approach to developing data analysis projects.
Another key aspect is the active involvement of Flowtech’s customers, helping to ensure that technological development addresses real industrial needs.
This connection between research, technical expertise and operational experience is essential to developing Artificial Intelligence solutions with practical applications in manufacturing processes.
The Future of Industrial Management Depends on Smarter Decisions
The integration of Artificial Intelligence into MES solutions represents a step forward in how companies can use the information generated daily across their manufacturing operations.
Rather than simply collecting indicators and monitoring results, the focus is shifting towards understanding what is happening, identifying areas for improvement and supporting the selection of the most appropriate actions.
With Flow MESsIA, Flowtech reinforces its commitment to research and the development of industrial technology, continuing the evolution of Flow Manufacturing.
Because the future of industrial management depends not only on the amount of data available, but on the ability to turn that data into decisions that create real value for production.
Learn more about Flowtech’s industrial management solutions and discover how Flow Manufacturing can support the digitalisation of your production processes.