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Intelligent factories

Manufacturers face operational challenges: siloed IT and OT data, low asset and worker productivity, and high quality-related costs. These challenges stem from fragmented data estates and disconnected workflows that limit visibility and decision-making across factory operations. Without a unified approach, organizations can't optimize performance or keep consistent quality standards.

To address these challenges, companies need solutions that unify factory data to provide holistic views of operations. Platforms that enable secure collaboration and tools that enhance workforce productivity—such as digital literacy programs and intelligent automation—are essential. These technologies not only streamline processes but also empower workers to be more effective, contributing to overall operational efficiency without compromising enterprise security or product quality.

Implement Microsoft for Manufacturing to increase production efficiency, reduce operational costs, and improve production quality. Track metrics such as throughput, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), downtime, inventory turnover, and capacity utilization to measure results. These improvements make your manufacturing environment more agile, cost-effective, and high performing.

Enable the intelligent factory by leveraging production data from sensors, machines, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), factory systems, and enterprise systems to gain visibility and identify AI-driven optimization opportunities. Prepare your factory edge for AI with a scalable, secure framework for application modernization and deployment. Use digital tools to help factory workers communicate and collaborate, capture data, and learn through immersive onboarding and upskilling.

Microsoft helps manufacturing customers enable intelligent factories by focusing on these scenarios:

Modernize factory edge and infrastructure

Modernize factory edge infrastructure to fix outdated systems, unify fragmented data, and reduce security risks. Use Microsoft Adaptive Cloud to unify IT and OT operations, increase agility, and improve security. Modernization lays the foundation for AI-driven solutions that optimize processes, enable predictive maintenance, ensure quality and traceability, and improve safety and efficiency with advanced analytics and AI agent templates.

The top use cases for modernizing factory edge and infrastructure include:

  • Real-time operational visibility and optimization: Modernize the factory edge to collect and analyze data from machines, sensors, PLCs, and MES systems, which helps you reduce downtime by predicting equipment failures, improve quality by detecting anomalies and reducing defects and scrap and also improve energy efficiency with AI-driven optimization to cut operational costs.

  • AI-powered operations: Use Microsoft platforms, like AI Foundry and Copilot Studio, to build AI solutions that run at the edge, support frontline workers, and autonomously complete tasks such as monitor production KPIs, monitor safety and quality, guide frontline workers with AI-driven insights, automate root cause analysis and corrective actions, and integrate with Microsoft Fabric to unify data across edge and cloud environments.

The key Microsoft technologies that support factory edge and infrastructure are:

The following Microsoft for Manufacturing–certified partner solutions support the modernize factory edge and infrastructure use cases described earlier and are available on Microsoft AppSource.

These solutions are certified with the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and meet Microsoft's data accessibility standards for the manufacturing industry. For more, see Appendix: Certified partner solutions for Microsoft for Manufacturing.

Can't find your solution? Go to Microsoft AppSource for a full list of ISV solutions.

Connect and enable workers

Frontline workers are the backbone of industrial operations—keeping factories running, supply chains moving, and customers served. Yet, they remain one of the most underserved segments in digital transformation. Microsoft is changing that.

Microsoft provides frontline workers with a unified platform that facilitates streamlined communication, enhances employee experiences, promotes agile operations, and offers comprehensive enterprise-grade security capabilities. This platform helps to consolidate your technology investment. It enables the centralization of your organization’s communications and business processes across manufacturing environments into one app to create a comprehensive view for the frontline workforce.

At the heart of Microsoft’s frontline strategy is Microsoft 365 for Frontline Workers and Microsoft Copilot Chat—a secure suite of AI-powered apps that acts as a gateway to the information frontline workers need to do their jobs efficiently. It serves as a single system of engagement for frontline workers, enabling them to:

  • Get instant answers from enterprise data, SharePoint, and the web with natural language prompting in more than 160 languages.
  • Generate step-by-step instructions from large instruction manuals, standard operating procedures, and more.
  • Automate workflows with intelligent agents and make data-driven decisions.
  • Collaborate and communicate with coworkers and your company to build a cohesive culture from the shop floor to the top floor.
  • Stay secure with built-in enterprise-grade data protection and compliance.

Microsoft 365 for Frontline Workers and Microsoft Copilot Chat are optimized for shared mobile devices and support key frontline scenarios involving shift, task, and information management—while respecting Microsoft 365 security policies.

The key Microsoft technologies that support Connect and enable workers are:

In addition to the Microsoft technologies that support Connect and enable workers, learn more about Microsoft’s growing ecosystem of hardware partners, from ruggedized phones to wired or wireless headsets at Microsoft AppSource.

The following partner solutions certified for Microsoft for Manufacturing support the Connect and enable workers use cases described earlier and are available on Microsoft AppSource.

These solutions are certified with the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and meet the Microsoft standards of data accessibility specific to the manufacturing industry. To learn more about the Microsoft for Manufacturing certified partner solutions and the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, see Appendix: Certified partner solutions for Microsoft for Manufacturing.

Can't find your solution? Go to Microsoft AppSource for a full list of ISV solutions.

Optimize factory operations

Microsoft offers solutions that help manufacturers use production data to drive smarter decisions on the factory floor. Using data from sensors, machines, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), factory systems, and enterprise IT systems, manufacturers get insights that optimize operations, reduce bottlenecks, and boost efficiency.

The top use cases for optimizing factory operations supported by Microsoft include:

  • Factory Digital Twins: Provides a structured, graphical digital data platform that can enable use cases from production monitoring to process optimization, simulation, and maintenance.
  • MES on Azure: Offers manufacturers the agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency required to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions and drive digital transformation in their manufacturing operations.
  • Edge and OT Security: Encompasses coverage and visibility of IoT/OT devices, risk analysis across all networks, behavioral analytics, and rapid identification and mitigation of multi-stage attacks across IT/IoT/OT.
  • Sustainable operations through energy cost optimization: Helps reduce energy costs by optimizing consumption and meeting sustainability goals by reducing carbon footprint.
  • Autonomous and intelligent control systems: Uses AI and ML to optimize processes, enable quality inspection, automate tasks, improve machine performance, and make data easier to access and summarize.

The key Microsoft technologies that support optimize factory operations use cases are:

The following partner solutions certified for Microsoft for Manufacturing support the Optimize factory operations use cases described earlier and are available on Microsoft AppSource.

These solutions are certified with the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and meet Microsoft manufacturing data accessibility standards. For more about certified partner solutions and the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, see Appendix: Certified partner solutions for Microsoft for Manufacturing.

Can't find your solution? Go to Microsoft AppSource for a full list of ISV solutions.