An initiative from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business has saved manufacturers in Indiana and beyond an estimated $91 million in just three years.

The statistic comes from the IU Business Sustainability and Innovation Lab, led by Amrou Awaysheh, an associate professor of operations and supply chain management and executive director at the IU Kelley School of Business in Indianapolis.

Since 2019, Awaysheh and his team of 14 have worked with over 450 facilities globally, with companies investing $24 million to date on projects. The cost savings –  in the form of higher machine up-time, better employee productivity, lower resource consumption and higher quality products going out the door – come through the use of sensors and AI technology.

The project has recently entered a new phase with the rollout of new sensors that collect new types of information – ranging from employee performance to machine metrics that can determine when machines need preventative maintenance.

Yogen V. Uttarkar, principal lead of product sustainability at Amazon Robotics, says: “IU students came up with strong system-level solutions and helped us with the methodology to optimize material circularity with logistics-based emissions. This will help Amazon become both more sustainable and more competitive.”

As one of the country’s top states for manufacturing, Indiana boasts a deep, existing supply chain network and the second-largest automotive industry in the U.S. According to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Indiana is home to 9,000 manufacturing operations and exports $34.8 billion in manufactured goods every year.

Awaysheh is also the founding director of the IU Energy Efficiency IoT Lab. Learn more about this work in the video below.