Dumb, Smart or Intelligent? What’s Really Relevant in the Factory

With the integration of software and sensors, a machine can make contact with its environment, and human “intelligence” can be introduced in the form of decision-making algorithms. This enables the machine to respond to its environment and make decisions. A very simple pre-computer example is the loom that formed the basis of the later Toyota company: The machine could detect when a tread had broken and would stop the weaving process. Simple yet smart: with the machine detecting a problem and stopping the process, it no longer needed to be supervised permanently by a human. Modern cars can distinguish the front from the back of other cars and determine their location and then calculate whether the other car is on a collision course or not. Based on built-in decision rules, the car chooses to give the driver a warning, take over the controls and change the route slightly or even make an emergency stop. Smart. But never smarter than the intelligence a human has put into the system.