We recently announced that ETQ received the honor of being shortlisted for the 2025 A.I. Awards program for Best Use of AI in Manufacturing through our ETQ Reliance® Predictive Quality Analytics (PQA) solution. Since that announcement, we just received news that we’re actually now a finalist for the award.
We’re honored, but more importantly, we remain committed to continuing to explore the opportunities that AI can bring to boosting the quality of manufacturing plants, products and processes around the world. After all, most every manufacturer is or will be relying on AI to improve their manufacturing quality. In fact, our 2025 ETQ Pulse of Quality in Manufacturing survey showed that an overwhelming 99 percent of manufacturers polled said they are using AI or plan to implement it in the next two years.
While ETQ won the award, much of the credit goes to our partner, Acerta, which provides ETQ Reliance with the engine to fuel automated, early detection and proactive resolution of manufacturing issues. The Acerta/ETQ partnership introduces a predictive closed-loop system that combines real-time machine learning with human expertise to revolutionize how manufacturers approach quality management. Quantitative data from the shop floor analyzed by the system in real time gives quality, process, and manufacturing engineers and managers the important insights they need to quickly inform critical decisions.
The ETQ Reliance PQA brings the qualitative data from the quality management system (QMS), as well as the human expertise and context needed to add a deeper understanding to the machine learning analysis, and teaches it to generate more accurate predictions over time. The solution helps to maintain consistent product quality, speed decision making, deliver prescriptive solutions to supply chain issues and boost overall delivered quality.
The benefits of predictive quality analytics are especially critical at a time when product recalls are on the rise across almost every manufacturing sector. In fact, according to the same 2025 ETQ Pulse of Quality in Manufacturing survey, 75 percent of respondents said their organization had a product recall in the past five years (a number that is up from 73% in the 2024 survey). Out of those recalls, 48% said the cost to rectify each product recall ranged from $10 million -to- $49.99 million.
AI holds the key to reducing those incidents. It uses machine learning to analyze manufacturing data from the shop floor to identify patterns and anomalies that could indicate a higher risk of product defects. For example, inadequate temperatures in the plant can impact food quality, or uncalibrated instrumentation can cause defects in auto parts. ETQ Reliance PQA alerts the quality team to these problems before they can impact product quality or safety.
AI will continue to grow and evolve and most certainly help to improve quality operations in manufacturing – from reducing product recalls to ensuring a safer plant floor. At ETQ we’re committed to championing its growth and innovation.
We’re honored to receive this recognition as a finalist for the A.I. Awards for the Best Use of AI in Manufacturing, and to join the ranks of companies across all segments, striving to leverage the power of AI to deliver a new level of quality outcomes.
