The second day of the Google I/O 18 consisted of several talks including AI and ML in healthcare sector, Web Assembly, Polymer, Chrome Dev Tools, Flutter. Let’s dive in to know what’s new and the improvements that have been made to the web!

Artificial Intelligence(AI):

Google’s AI to Improve Healthcare

We all have unfortunately, heard a doctor express with utmost despair that they could have done better if the patient could have been brought to medical attention a little early-on. Google thinks it can solve this problem for mankind. Last year at Google I/O, Sundar Pichai demonstrated the advanced computing powers of Google named Tensor Processing Units (TPU) which now has been working with eye hospitals to help doctors use Deep Learning, a machine learning module to screen Diabetic Retinopathy in a better way.

Google’s AI analyses about 100,000 data points per patient, something humans can’t do, to determine if their health is likely to deteriorate in near future and if they may need readmission. The current level of accuracy in prediction by Google’s AI is better than traditional methods by 10%; the aim is to empower doctors by nearly 48 to 24 hours in advance before a patient falls sick again.

Google focuses to make healthcare better by helping doctors be more efficient and for patients to get better quality of healthcare, in Google I/O 2018 this is only a beginning of human and machine working together.

Do It Yourself Artificial Intelligence

Google introduced the AIY Kits: a series of open source projects that include hardware and software tools, showcasing on-device artificial intelligence. With AIY Kits, users can use artificial intelligence to make human-to-machine interaction more like human-to-human interactions.

The first open source project is the Voice Kit. The speech recognition ability in this kit allows you to add voice recognition to assistive robots, talk to control devices such as light bulbs and replace physical buttons on household appliances and consumer electronics.

For Developers:

1. Chrome DevTools

There is a new shortcut, Ctrl + F that will pull up a new search sidebar in the Network pane of Chrome DevTools. With this search sidebar, you can search through headers and their values. You need to make sure Site Isolation for Chrome is enabled by heading to chrome://flags#enable-site-per-process and activating it.

Performance Isolation – The Performance panel has been improved to provide flame charts for every process.
Certificate Transparency – The Security panel now provides the ability to show the certificate transparency information of a secure website.
Sources Panel – The Sources Panel has a Network tab. The Network tab is now called the Page tab.

2. Web Performance

Google analyzes a lot of sites and has learned over time how to make them extremely fast. The Web Performance made easy talk by Eva and Addy Osmani showed how to fix common web performance bottlenecks and take advantage of the latest browser APIs to improve loading experience.

New Lighthouse Web Performance Audits
Optimizing Caching Strategies – Cache as many resources as possible efficiently.
Remove unnecessary bytes and don’t send things twice – Optimize Caching strategies. Cache as many resources as possible.
Remove unused JavaScript and CSS from the Critical Path.
Eliminate unnecessary downloads.
Don’t serve un-optimized or unnecessary images to your users.
Help browsers deliver critical resources.
Have a Web Font Loading Strategy.

Google announced a new experimental browser feature called Priority Hints. It allows you to specify the importance of a resource. The browser loads the resources with high importance first before the others.

3. Web Assembly

Google is working really hard to allow developers import web assembly modules into their JavaScript apps and have Chrome render it effectively. With Web Assembly, software like AutoCAD and Complex3 have created complex but fast UI web experiences.

Smart Manufacturing Dashboards: A Real-Time Guide for Data-Driven Ops

By : Divyanjali Gupta

Published on Jul 31, 2025

Data Science Manufacturing Analytics Smart Manufacturing

Smart Manufacturing starts with real-time visibility.

Manufacturing companies today generate data by the second through sensors, machines, ERP systems, and MES platforms. But without real-time insights, even the most advanced production lines are essentially flying blind.

Manufacturers are implementing real-time dashboards that serve as control towers for their daily operations, enabling them to shift from reactive to proactive decision-making. These tools are essential to the evolution of Smart Manufacturing, where connected systems, automation, and intelligent analytics come together to drive measurable impact.

Data is available, but what’s missing is timely action.

For many plant leaders and COOs, one challenge persists: operational data is dispersed throughout systems, delayed, or hidden in spreadsheets. And this delay turns into a liability.

Real-time dashboards help uncover critical answers:

What caused downtime during last night’s shift?
Was there a delay in maintenance response?
Did a specific inventory threshold trigger a quality issue?

By converting raw inputs into real-time manufacturing analytics, dashboards make operational intelligence accessible to operators, supervisors, and leadership alike, enabling teams to anticipate problems rather than react to them.

1. Why Static Reports Fall Short

Reports often arrive late—after downtime, delays, or defects have occurred.
Disconnected data across ERP, MES, and sensors limits cross-functional insights.
Static formats lack embedded logic for proactive decision support.

2. What Real-Time Dashboards Enable

Line performance and downtime trends
Track OEE in real time and identify underperforming lines.

Predictive maintenance alerts
Utilize historical and sensor data to identify potential part failures in advance.

Inventory heat maps & reorder thresholds
Anticipate stockouts or overstocks based on dynamic reorder points.

Quality metrics linked to operator actions
Isolate shifts or procedures correlated with spikes in defects or rework.

These insights allow production teams to drive day-to-day operations in line with Smart Manufacturing principles.

3. Dashboards That Drive Action

Role-based dashboards
Dashboards can be configured for machine operators, shift supervisors, and plant managers, each with a tailored view of KPIs.

Embedded alerts and nudges
Real-time prompts, like “Line 4 below efficiency threshold for 15+ minutes,” reduce response times and minimize disruptions.

Cross-functional drill-downs
Teams can identify root causes more quickly because users can move from plant-wide overviews to detailed machine-level data in seconds.

4. What Powers These Dashboards

Data lakehouse integration
Unified access to ERP, MES, IoT sensor, and QA systems—ensuring reliable and timely manufacturing analytics.

ETL pipelines
Real-time data ingestion from high-frequency sources with minimal latency.

Visualization tools
Custom builds using Power BI, or customized solutions designed for frontline usability and operational impact.

Smart Manufacturing in Action: Reducing Market Response Time from 48 Hours to 30 Minutes

Mantra Labs partnered with a North American die-casting manufacturer to unify its operational data into a real-time dashboard. Fragmented data, manual reporting, delayed pricing decisions, and inconsistent data quality hindered operational efficiency and strategic decision-making.

Tech Enablement:

Centralized Data Hub with real-time access to critical business insights.
Automated report generation with data ingestion and processing.
Accurate price modeling with real-time visibility into metal price trends, cost impacts, and customer-specific pricing scenarios.
Proactive market analysis with intuitive Power BI dashboards and reports.

Business Outcomes:

Faster response to machine alerts
Quality incidents traced to specific operator workflows
4X faster access to insights led to improved inventory optimization.

As this case shows, real-time dashboards are not just operational tools—they’re strategic enablers.

(Learn More: Powering the Future of Metal Manufacturing with Data Engineering)

Key Takeaways: Smart Manufacturing Dashboards at a Glance

Aspect	What You Should Know
1. Why Static Reports Fall Short	Delayed insights after issues occur Disconnected systems (ERP, MES, sensors) No real-time alerts or embedded decision logic
2. What Real-Time Dashboards Enable	Track OEE and downtime in real-time Predictive maintenance using sensor data Dynamic inventory heat maps Quality linked to operators
3. Dashboards That Drive Action	Role-based views (operator to CEO) Embedded alerts like “Line 4 down for 15+ mins” Drilldowns from plant-level to machine-level
4. What Powers These Dashboards	Unified Data Lakehouse (ERP + IoT + MES) Real-time ETL pipelines Power BI or custom dashboards built for frontline usability

Conclusion

Smart Manufacturing dashboards aren’t just analytics tools—they’re productivity engines. Dashboards that deliver real-time insight empower frontline teams to make faster, better decisions—whether it’s adjusting production schedules, triggering preventive maintenance, or responding to inventory fluctuations.

Explore how Mantra Labs can help you unlock operations intelligence that’s actually usable.

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