Identify the real problem
Describe the problem—not the solution. Avoid jumping to dashboards, predictive maintenance or generative AI before the need is clear.
Why this workshop
Start with the plant problem—not the technology
Many manufacturers are encouraged to adopt AI before they have agreed on the operational problem, established business impact, verified evidence, assessed data availability, or assigned an accountable owner.
Ground it in evidence
Examine business impact, available and missing data, owners, frequency and expected value across functions.
Select a governed pilot
Management chooses one to three pilots with a clear owner, approval path and 30/60/90-day plan.
Service pathway
From interest to an agreed plant pilot
1. Executive briefing
45–60 minutes: Where can AI and Asset Performance Monitoring actually help your plant? Entry point for associations and leadership groups.
2. Readiness survey
Optional pre-workshop survey on pressures, recurring problems, systems, data quality, sponsorship and constraints. It prepares the workshop—it does not select the pilot.
3. Six-hour workshop
Cross-functional working day to prioritize problems, examine evidence and obtain management approval for a pilot.
4. Pilot charter
Within one week: problem statement, baseline, data boundaries, AI and non-AI options, success measures, owner and go/no-go criteria.
5. Ninety-day coaching
Coach the plant’s internal team through data validation, solution testing, user validation and a scale/no-scale review.
Funnel
Briefing → Survey → Plant workshop → Pilot charter → Ninety-day pilot → Scale / no-scale decision.
Plant Problem Identification and Pilot Selection Workshop
One full working day with your plant team
Morning — Understand and prioritize
- Management sets objectives, then steps back
- Process engineer walks through the plant
- Participants independently identify problems
- Group into Safety, Reliability, and Performance & Optimization
- Agree on the Top 10 problems
Afternoon — Evidence and selection
- Assess impact, evidence, data, owners and effort
- Select the Top 3 opportunities
- Management returns to choose 1–3 pilots
- Agree a 30 / 60 / 90-day action plan
- Assign an accountable owner
Who should attend
Designed for cross-functional plant teams
The value comes from connecting disciplines that currently see different parts of the same plant event.
Operations
Maintenance
Reliability
Process engineering
Process control / automation
Data / IT / OT
Inspection / condition monitoring
Management (open + final selection)
Data readiness
Incomplete data is a finding—not a barrier
Complete data access is not required to run the workshop. Available evidence is used to assess each opportunity, and missing data is documented as part of the pilot plan.
- CMMS work orders and failure history (when available)
- Historian trends and key process variables
- Alarm and event history
- Operator logs and shift notes
- Inspection, lab and equipment documentation as applicable
How AI appears in the workshop
Match the pathway to the problem
After priority problems are identified, each opportunity is screened against practical pathways—AI is considered only where it fits.
| Problem pathway | Typical response |
|---|---|
| Work-process problem | Procedure, role clarity or workflow redesign |
| Data-quality problem | Tag, master-data or historian improvement |
| Instrumentation problem | Sensor, analyzer or measurement improvement |
| Control problem | PID tuning, advanced control or control-strategy change |
| Reliability problem | Maintenance strategy or condition monitoring |
| Knowledge problem | Search, retrieval or an operations copilot |
| Pattern-recognition problem | Machine learning or anomaly detection |
| Optimization problem | First-principles model, optimization or hybrid AI |
| High-consequence problem | Human-supervised decision support only |
After the workshop
Pilot charter and ninety-day coaching
Week 1
- Finalize pilot charter
- Confirm baseline and boundaries
- Document data gaps
- Confirm owner and approvals
Days 1–60
- Collect and validate data
- Develop and test the solution
- Compare AI and non-AI options
- Involve operators and plant staff
Days 61–90
- Validate with users
- Assess operational value
- Management review
- Scale / modify / stop decision
For associations
Help members move from AI interest to defined pilots
Host a one-hour briefing and circulate the readiness survey so member plants arrive prepared for a focused working day.
For plant managers
Align functions around one high-value opportunity
In one facilitated working day, bring technical functions together around one practical action plan with management ownership.
Call to action
Bring one plant team. Identify one high-value problem. Leave with one management-supported pilot pathway.
The workshop can be tailored to your plant’s priorities while keeping proprietary process details out of open discussion.
Request a Workshop Discussion