SMART FACTORIES IN THE AGE OF AI: LEVERAGING PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE AND GENERATIVE DESIGN FOR SCALABLE MANUFACTURING

The rapid advancement of Industry 4.0 technologies has ushered in a new era of smart factories, where artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, digital twins, and cloud-edge computing converge to create highly connected, autonomous, and scalable manufacturing environments.Among the most transformative applications of AI are predictive maintenance and generative design.Predictive maintenance leverages realtime sensor data, machine learning algorithms, and digital twins to proactively identify potential equipment failures, thereby reducing downtime and optimizing operational efficiency.Generative design, powered by AI-driven algorithms, enables manufacturers to automatically generate thousands of design alternatives based on predefined constraints, significantly accelerating innovation and improving product performance.This paper presents a comprehensive exploration of how AI is reshaping smart factories by integrating predictive maintenance and generative design into scalable manufacturing ecosystems.Through a proposed reference architecture, comparative analyses, and industry case studies, we examine the technical, economic, and Rajeswara Rao Choppari https://iaeme.com/