Responsible AI (RAI) in Manufacturing: A Qualitative Framework

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has profound economic influence in manufacturing, but its unmindful integration can also pose societal and environmental risks. This paper provides a quantified overview of manufacturing areas that are highly advanced in AI capability research, such as maintenance. Integrating Responsible AI (RAI) in further studies of those areas is essential to mitigate risks and deliver business benefits. To enable this, manufacturing specific RAI dimensions are defined to represent accountability, explainability, fairness, human-centricity, sustainability (Green AI) and privacy & security. Further, a qualitative RAI framework consisting of responsibility areas (human involvement, decision making, business focus, system design) is proposed. Practical considerations to align the framework with manufacturing requirements are made by discussing it within an AI systems lifecycle.