Salesforce Powers Up Manufacturing with New Suite of Capabilities and AI Tools for Connected Asset Management

Salesforce today announced Connected Assets, a new suite of capabilities for Manufacturing Cloud that gives manufacturers a comprehensive, real-time view of their connected asset data — including service history, status, and customer and telematics information — so they can better manage assets, monitor health and performance, and act on real-time data.

With Connected Assets, sales, customer, and field service teams can now provide real-time alerts to customers, faster, more informed support, more personalized offers and services, and accelerate repair times to increase customer satisfaction, all from one platform.

Manufacturers can also use new AI capabilities to surface deeper insights and recommendations based on asset condition, performance, service history, and other data, as well as provide proactive maintenance and real-time recommendations for customers and field technicians. For example, when a technician is onsite to repair a tractor’s failing engine, AI can suggest other parts that can be serviced now to prevent future downtime.

And with trusted generative AI capabilities from Salesforce Industries AI, manufacturers can use ready-made prompts combined with industry-specific data models and their own metadata to get tailored, meaningful results. The AI will quickly summarize key asset information — like alerts, open cases, work orders, and warranty status — to provide faster, more informed customer support and uncover new revenue opportunities.

Why it matters: The world’s largest manufacturers lose $864 billion every year due to unexpected machine downtime. Monitoring their assets in real time could help prevent failures and reduce downtime, but only 42% of manufacturers have the accessible and integrated connected asset data needed to do this today, according to Salesforce’s new Trends in Manufacturing report. With a complete, real-time view of their data, manufacturers can reduce these costs and create new revenue streams.

The innovation: Connected Assets works by connecting to assets that have bidirectional, over-the-air (OTA) capabilities, enabling data sharing between the cloud and the asset over a wireless or cellular network. This helps manufacturers easily integrate all of their asset, IoT, customer and service history data to get a single, more contextualized view of the condition, status, maintenance history, and usage patterns of their equipment.

With Connected Assets, manufacturers can now:

Bring together all of their data: Data Cloud for Manufacturing, which includes the Connected Asset Data Model and Data Kit for Manufacturing, helps manufacturers unify this structured and unstructured data from different sources – such as telematics and ERP systems — into a common model. This makes it easy to monitor, analyze, and understand asset performance and customer experience over time to proactively respond to their needs and improve satisfaction.

Gain a comprehensive view of their assets: Connected Digital Asset gives sales, service, and retail representatives a complete picture of an asset — including service history, status, and real-time telematics data — so they can make faster, more informed decisions when supporting their customers or technicians in the field. A sales representative, for example, can quickly determine if a customer’s heavy equipment is nearing the end of its lifecycle and proactively reach out to offer a discount on the newest model.

Monitor asset health and performance: Asset Performance Monitoring enables service teams to easily monitor key performance data, like asset condition and operating status, to quickly identify potential issues with equipment and machinery and proactively alert customers, helping to avoid costly downtime and production stoppages.

Act on telematics data in real time: Actionable Telematics Framework helps manufacturers ingest, monitor, and act on comprehensive telematics data – such as location, on-board diagnostics, and information from enabled services. For example, service teams can set up an alert to be notified if a tractor is using too much fuel that also automatically notifies the customer about the potential issue and prompts them to schedule a service appointment.

Drive proactive maintenance: Asset Service Prediction, included with Salesforce Field Service, provides AI-driven insights that help predict upcoming maintenance needs before a breakdown or failure starts to occur. The feature also helps provide real-time recommendations to technicians once they are on-site to help speed up repair times and reduce the need for return service visits.

Surface comprehensive asset information and history with a click: Asset Service Summary, included with Einstein AI and built into Manufacturing Cloud, uses generative AI to autogenerate an overview of alerts, open cases, work orders, and warranty status. This enables manufacturers to provide faster, more informed customer support and identify revenue opportunities like proactive maintenance services and extended warranties.

Quickly understand asset health and performance: Asset Telemetry Summary, included with Einstein AI, provides a concise overview of data from sensors, software, and monitoring systems embedded in physical assets such as connected tractors, loaders, condensers, and generators. Asset Telemetry Summary takes AI generated snapshots of asset health and provides recommendations for resolving potential issues to maximize performance. For example, it can reveal a potential issue with a piece of machinery — like slowing engine performance — and automatically create a work order for an inspection or identify an opportunity to sell the customer an accessory that can help increase performance.

News release from Salesforce, 23/10/2024

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