Toyota pushes IT automation into overdrive

One of Toyota’s build tests for vehicles is thermal imaging to test the welding of the frame. It is “very time consuming,” he says, but the implementation of automation not only saves the company millions of dollars but results in a higher-quality output — now every vehicle is tested in this manner.

Toyota operates roughly 15 manufacturing plants in North America and is currently building a new plant in North Carolina with Panasonic to support its electric vehicle (EV) batteries. “Everything going in there is going in with a data-first, automation-first [blueprint],” Kursar adds.

IDC maintains that more than $150 billion was spent on automation between 2017 and 2021. Yet, only roughly a third of enterprises are more than 50% into automation goals for basic software development, IT, and business processes, such as claims processing, according to a recent IDC report detailed at IDC Directions 2023 in March.

“For many companies, automation starts with processes they already fully understand. However, machine learning and AI are allowing engineers to better understand how small nuances in operating parameters can make a big difference in the business outcome,” says Dave McCarthy, a vice president at IDC.

Many C-suite executives are now focused on what IDC terms Enterprise Automation 2.0, defined as a “unified approach to closed-loop automation where artificial intelligence continuously supports decision-making and automated actions that proactively optimize and enrich outcomes to maximize the business value of the automation,” says Ritu Jyoti, group vice president of AI and automation at IDC.

Next-generation automation 2.0 will span an entire organization, and include generative AI and business processes such as process and task mining, RPA, workflow automation, BPM, application integration,  API management, data integration, and event brokers, the IDC report states.

Most of these — including machine learning model creation — are currently in process among many in Gartner’s Hyperautomation 100 Club. But soon, as enterprises continue to use digital transformation processes to save money and differentiate their offerings, it will become ubiquitous at thousands of companies, experts predict.

“Automation is the way we can be better than our competitors,” says Toyota’s Kursar. “By automating as many processes as we can, we can then really focus on high value.”