scholarly journals Using Explainable Artificial Intelligence to Improve Process Quality: Evidence from Semiconductor Manufacturing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Senoner ◽  
Torbjørn Netland ◽  
Stefan Feuerriegel
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Quality Management ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
Decision Model ◽  
Nonlinear Modeling ◽  
Process Quality ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Power Semiconductors ◽  
Explainable Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Significant Yield

We develop a data-driven decision model to improve process quality in manufacturing. A challenge for traditional methods in quality management is to handle high-dimensional and nonlinear manufacturing data. We address this challenge by adapting explainable artificial intelligence to the context of quality management. Specifically, we propose the use of nonlinear modeling with Shapley additive explanations to infer how a set of production parameters and the process quality of a manufacturing system are related. Thereby, we contribute a measure of process importance based on which manufacturers can prioritize processes for quality improvement. Grounded in quality management theory, our decision model selects improvement actions that target the sources of quality variation. The decision model is validated in a real-world application at a leading manufacturer of high-power semiconductors. Seeking to improve production yield, we apply our decision model to select improvement actions for a transistor chip product. We then conduct a field experiment to confirm the effectiveness of the improvement actions. Compared with the average yield in our sample, the experiment returns a reduction in yield loss of 21.7%. Furthermore, we report on results from a postexperimental rollout of the decision model, which also resulted in significant yield improvements. We demonstrate the operational value of explainable artificial intelligence by showing that critical drivers of process quality can go undiscovered by the use of traditional methods. This paper was accepted by Charles Corbett, operations management.

scholarly journals Active Inference: Applicability to Different Types of Social Organization Explained through Reference to Industrial Engineering and Quality Management

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Stephen Fox
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Quality Management ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Active Inference ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Inference Theory

Active inference is a physics of life process theory of perception, action and learning that is applicable to natural and artificial agents. In this paper, active inference theory is related to different types of practice in social organization. Here, the term social organization is used to clarify that this paper does not encompass organization in biological systems. Rather, the paper addresses active inference in social organization that utilizes industrial engineering, quality management, and artificial intelligence alongside human intelligence. Social organization referred to in this paper can be in private companies, public institutions, other for-profit or not-for-profit organizations, and any combination of them. The relevance of active inference theory is explained in terms of variational free energy, prediction errors, generative models, and Markov blankets. Active inference theory is most relevant to the social organization of work that is highly repetitive. By contrast, there are more challenges involved in applying active inference theory for social organization of less repetitive endeavors such as one-of-a-kind projects. These challenges need to be addressed in order for active inference to provide a unifying framework for different types of social organization employing human and artificial intelligence.

An explainable Artificial Intelligence approach to study MCI to AD conversion via HD-EEG processing

2021 ◽  
pp. 155005942110636
Author(s):  
Francesco Carlo Morabito ◽  
Cosimo Ieracitano ◽  
Nadia Mammone
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Classification Performance ◽  
Head Region ◽  
Left Frontal Lobe ◽  
Performance Accuracy ◽  
Power Spectral ◽  
Explainable Artificial Intelligence

An explainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI) approach is proposed to longitudinally monitor subjects affected by Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) by using high-density electroencephalography (HD-EEG). To this end, a group of MCI patients was enrolled at IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo of Messina (Italy) within a follow-up protocol that included two evaluations steps: T0 (first evaluation) and T1 (three months later). At T1, four MCI patients resulted converted to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and were included in the analysis as the goal of this work was to use xAI to detect individual changes in EEGs possibly related to the degeneration from MCI to AD. The proposed methodology consists in mapping segments of HD-EEG into channel-frequency maps by means of the power spectral density. Such maps are used as input to a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), trained to label the maps as “T0” (MCI state) or “T1” (AD state). Experimental results reported high intra-subject classification performance (accuracy rate up to 98.97% (95% confidence interval: 98.68–99.26)). Subsequently, the explainability of the proposed CNN is explored via a Grad-CAM approach. The procedure allowed to detect which EEG-channels (i.e., head region) and range of frequencies (i.e., sub-bands) resulted more active in the progression to AD. The xAI analysis showed that the main information is included in the delta sub-band and that, limited to the analyzed dataset, the highest relevant areas are: the left-temporal and central-frontal lobe for Sb01, the parietal lobe for Sb02, the left-frontal lobe for Sb03 and the left-frontotemporal region for Sb04.

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