Imagine you’ve recently started an online fresh vegetable business. You have a catalog for fruits and vegetables explaining price and availability. Although most of the information is clearly mentioned on the website, you get hundreds of emails and phone calls regarding deliveries, discounts, and availability of your services in a particular location. Now, you could appoint someone for customer support and reply to these queries or simply — can implement a chatbot on your app and website that instantly answers such routine questions.

Chatbots for business are the need of the hour. The reasons are obvious. It is efficient, reduces workload, and responds to customer requests immediately. Nearly 1 in 4 customers have interacted with a brand via chatbots in the past 12 months, according to a Salesforce study published in late 2018.

As more and more customers are using e-commerce and digital medium for purchases, the incoming requests have also increased at the same rate. Companies need a larger workforce to handle customer support, failing which may lead to dangling customer satisfaction. Immediate query resolution also implies better customer experiences.

Chatbots for business: benefits at large

1. Humanized conversations

NLP-powered chatbots have the power to initiate and handle conversations with humans based on a set of predefined rules and upgrade its dictionary based on learning. Chatbots are a game-changer in terms of overall customer satisfaction pushing the market to reach 1.34 billion by 2024. As per the reports, smart chat agents will manage 40% of mobile interactions by 2020.

2. Easy to implement

A myth surrounding chatbots was doing rounds that it is expensive and exclusive to only fortune 500 companies. But, this is no more the case as it is predicted that by 2020, 85% of the chat interactions will be automated and will not need human intervention. In recent months, several new players like the virtual banker and progressive native chat have introduced schemes that help companies to set up chatbots instantly with reasonable investments. Also, 10K+ developers are building chatbots with the Facebook messenger.

3. People prefer self-serve interactions

Today, millennials represent 27% (2 billion) of the global population. This tech-savvy generation prefers immediate resolution to their concerns and instead of talking to the support, they’re happy about settlements over chats.

Making a customer happy is what all businesses need, and chatbots serve this purpose adequately. They are capable of resolving customer queries in just a few seconds, eliminating wait times and queues. It is a win-win situation for both the consumer and the provider as the customer gets instant replies and the provider saves on operational costs. By the end of 2018 automated customer agents will be able to recognize their customers through voice and face recognition.

AI in Insurance will value at $36B by 2026. Chatbots will occupy 40% of overall deployment, predominantly within customer service roles.
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4. Fact-based decision making

All the conversations accomplished through chatbots are recorded and this contributes to the database for training future NLP models for more humanized conversations. Also, the data collected can help identify business bottlenecks and customer preferences towards specific products or services. All these, sum up to providing fact-based analytics for effective decision making.

5. Continuous innovations

Chatbots are here to stay. The innovations around chatbots are still in progress and time is not far when one will witness intelligent bots capable of resolving complicated issues on its own. We’ve already seen voice and vernacular chatbots in the market.

Big Techs are working on AI and machine learning to make smart chatbots that can offer much more than simple answers. If you haven’t thought about chatbots yet, then certainly you are missing on a significant business opportunity.

The significance of chatbots is already depicted in banking and marketing, and with time its influence will subsequently increase. Customers also expect chatbots and automated assistants from their business providers. They like to engage in live-chat as it helps them to get answers to their queries instantly. As of now, chatbots are only used for simple conversation. But, in the coming future, it will handle complex decision-making tasks. Any business that wants to evolve should consider chatbots and make it an integral part of their business.

We’re the makers of the world’s first insurance-specific chatbots. For further queries, please feel free to reach out to us at hello@mantralabsglobal.com.

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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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Why should businesses consider chatbots?