MIKOPTIK, a leading advanced micro-nano processing system solution supplier, needed to streamline its R&D processes. The company manufactures a wide variety of complex electronics—ranging from high-end electronic circuits to micro-electromechanical systems to solar energy and micro-nano devices and beyond. The required R&D on those product lines is equally complex and multifaceted.

At the time, one area in the company’s R&D process—the exploration of product-related information intelligence, technical design and engineering blueprinting—was particularly resource-intensive, leading to productivity challenges. The complexity inherent in product design, engineering optimization and roadmap planning exacerbated these issues, while siloed R&D applications made it difficult for engineering and production teams to collaborate.

What’s more, knowledge management in engineering and product design heavily relied on a few key engineers, causing significant risk to ongoing access to core technical expertise. Overcoming these challenges was paramount to the company’s ability to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of its operations.

The emergence of generative AI brought hope to MIKOPTIK. They had been persistent in their search for a company with rich technological accumulation, mature experience in corporate management and an international perspective to help them build a multinational organization structure. At this juncture, they found IBM through XPower, a leading provider of intelligent and digital integrated system solutions in China.

XPower brought in IBM to help develop an automated knowledge base management system and application. The solution aims to automate the knowledge management building and implementation process throughout the R&D lifecycle.

The solution consists of IBM® watsonx™ Assistant as the virtual assistant interface, IBM watsonx Discovery for data discovery, classification and management, IBM Cloud Pak® for Business Automation to automate workflows and data retrieval and IBM Cloud Pak for Integration to connect the various R&D systems to each other.

By integrating watsonx Assistant, watsonx Discovery and large language models (LLMs), the solution can streamline access to the knowledge base and enhance the interactive Q&A process. The solution significantly improves efficiency and productivity within the R&D operations by providing seamless access to vital information and facilitating collaboration across teams.