The company's patented speech-to-intent AI technology, currently deployed in one of BSH's German factories, reduces transition time on the assembly line for up to 75 - 100% efficiency gains
MONTREAL, June 10, 2021, a Canadian embedded voice recognition solutions company, today announced the launch of its partnership with BSH, Europe's leading manufacturer of connected home appliances, to bring voice automation to its factories. The company came to Fluent.ai through its Venture Client unit, BSH Startup Kitchen, with the goal of increasing efficiency and improving ergonomics for factory operators on the assembly line.
"After considering 11 companies for this partnership, we chose Fluent.ai because of their key competitive differentiators," said Ion Hauer, Venture Partner at BSH Startup Kitchen. "Fluent.ai's offline technology is noise robust and low latency which is critical - their solution is able to quickly and accurately understand voice commands even in the noisy environment of the factory. They also provide multilingual and multi-accent support which is key for BSH's global reach."
Currently, factory operators must press physical buttons at their workstations in order to move appliances along the assembly line, which takes up to four seconds per workplace. With this in mind, BSH was in search of a solution that would increase efficiency and improve ergonomics for their workers.
Fluent.ai developed a voice control solution for workers to operate heavy machinery by speaking into a headset connected to an embedded voice recognition system. The factory operator simply speaks a WakeWord followed by a command to trigger the appropriate movement of the appliance on the assembly line. The solution also offers improved ergonomics, as workers are able to conveniently operate the assembly line hands-free. Early results from the partnership show major improvements to factory worker productivity, with BSH seeing potential for 75-100 percent efficiency gains on the line.
"Implementing Fluent's technology has already improved efficiencies within our factory, with initial implementation of the solution cutting down the transition time from four seconds to one and a half," said Markus Maier, the project lead in BSH's Traunreut factory. "In the long run, the production time savings will be invaluable. We started with Fluent.ai on one factory assembly line, moved to three, and BSH is considering rolling the technology out worldwide."
BSH is known for innovation and fostering collaboration between startups and corporate companies. The company has a variety of appliance brands in its portfolio including Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau, NEFF, Thermador and many more. "We are thrilled to be working with BSH, a company at the forefront of innovation that truly makes startup-corporate collaboration work. Seeing your solution out in the real world is incredibly rewarding, and we look forward to continuing and growing our collaboration with BSH", says Fluent.ai CEO, Probal Lala, of the partnership.
To learn more about Fluent.ai, visit https://fluent.ai/.
About Fluent.ai
Fluent.ai Inc. is a Canadian speech recognition software company founded in 2015. Fluent.ai's mission is to voice-enable the world's devices, allowing everyone be understood by their technology. Through over seven years of research, the company developed a range of artificial intelligence (AI) voice interface software products to offer up to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers. Fluent.ai's solutions deliver unprecedented accuracy along with a highly customizable user experience with the goal of finally breaking the barriers to global adoption of voice user interfaces.
About BSH
BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, with a total turnover of some EUR 13.9 billion and 60,000 employees in 2020, is a global leader in the home appliance industry. The company's brand portfolio includes eleven well-known appliance brands like Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau and Neff as well as the
ecosystem brand Home Connect and service brands like Kitchen Stories. BSH produces at around 38 factories and is represented in some 50 countries.
BSH is a Bosch Group company.
Media Contact for Fluent.ai:
Laurel Pierce
Uproar PR
312-878-4575 x246
lpierce@uproarpr.com
