Every minute, your IBM i system processes thousands of transactions. Production schedules. Quality metrics. Inventory movements. Supply chain signals.
But here’s what keeps manufacturing executives awake at night: while this data flows through proven RPG applications, extracting actionable intelligence from it feels like archaeology, slow, manual, and always looking backward.
The game has changed. Model Context Protocol (MCP) transforms how manufacturers leverage AI with IBM i systems, and Profound Logic makes it happen without touching a single line of your trusted RPG code.
The Manufacturing Intelligence Gap Is Costing You Money
Consider this scenario: Your production manager needs to optimize next week’s schedule across three assembly lines, factoring in material availability, workforce capacity, and customer priorities. Your RPG applications have all this data.
But getting actionable insights? That takes hours of spreadsheet manipulation and educated guessing.
Meanwhile, your competitors using AI-enhanced systems make these decisions in minutes.
This intelligence gap shows up everywhere:
- Production planning relies on historical averages instead of predictive insights
- Quality issues get caught after defects occur, not before
- Inventory levels reflect past consumption, not future demand
- Equipment maintenance follows calendars, not actual conditions
You’re not lacking data. You’re lacking a bridge between your rock-solid IBM i foundation and modern AI capabilities. That’s exactly what MCP delivers. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Model Context Protocol: The Missing Link You've Been Waiting For
Think of MCP as a universal translator between your legacy applications and AI models. No rewrites. No migrations. No risk to your proven business logic.
MCP establishes structured communication channels that let AI models understand and enhance your existing IBM i data while your RPG programs continue running exactly as they do today. It’s coexistence at its finest—your trusted applications gain intelligence without losing reliability.
For manufacturers, this means:
- AI models can analyze production patterns from your DB2 databases
- Machine learning algorithms can process quality data in real-time
- Predictive models can optimize inventory without touching core logic
- Your team keeps using familiar screens while gaining AI-powered insights
Profound AI Brings MCP Power to Your IBM i Environment—Without the Complexity
Profound AI doesn’t just support MCP, it makes it accessible to your existing team. No PhD in data science required. No army of consultants. Just practical AI that works with what you already have.
The architecture respects your IBM i investment:
Seamless Integration Your RPG programs continue processing transactions as they always have. Profound AI’s MCP support enables external AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT to access your IBM i data and applications, adding an intelligence layer alongside your existing systems. When your production supervisor needs equipment insights, they can query their AI assistant of choice—which now has secure access to real-time IBM i data—to get predictive maintenance recommendations based on your actual operational information.
Immediate Value, Incremental Adoption Start with one high-impact use case. See results. Build confidence. Expand gradually. This isn’t an all-or-nothing transformation. It’s strategic futurization that moves at your pace.
Your Data, Your Control MCP ensures that AI models access only what you authorize, when you authorize it. Transaction boundaries remain intact. Data integrity stays rock-solid. Business rules keep working exactly as designed.
Transform These Manufacturing Scenarios from Possibilities to Realities
Predictive Production Optimization
Imagine your scheduling system anticipating bottlenecks before they happen. With Profound AI’s MCP support, your RPG-based production planning could receive AI recommendations that consider:
- Historical performance patterns across product lines
- Real-time material availability from suppliers
- Workforce capacity and skill matching
- Customer priority and delivery commitments
According to McKinsey’s research on AI in manufacturing, companies using AI for production optimization are seeing remarkable results. In metals manufacturing, AI scheduling agents have reduced yield losses by 20-40% while significantly improving on-time delivery.
One large mining operation used AI to identify seven distinct ore types that operators hadn’t recognized, leading to a production increase of more than 10% in less than six months. Similarly, CITIC Pacific Special Steel increased throughput by 15% while reducing energy consumption by 11% through AI-driven process optimization, all without changing their core operational logic.
Intelligent Quality Assurance
Picture catching quality drift before defects occur. Through MCP connections, AI models could monitor production parameters continuously, comparing them against optimal ranges learned from millions of successful runs.
A pharmaceutical manufacturer could implement such a system to:
- Predict when processes approach quality thresholds
- Alert operators to subtle parameter combinations that historically lead to issues
- Recommend adjustments based on environmental conditions
- Maintain complete compliance audit trails in existing RPG systems
VitrA Karo deployed computer vision in its kiln, which decreased the scrap rate by 68%, demonstrating the potential impact of AI-enhanced quality systems.
Smart Inventory Management
Stop choosing between excess inventory costs and stockout risks. Profound AI with MCP gives specialized AI tools the access they need to balance multiple factors simultaneously:
- Consumption patterns by customer and season
- Supplier reliability and lead time variations
- Production schedule requirements
- Market demand signals
An automotive parts manufacturer implementing this approach could potentially reduce inventory carrying costs while improving fill rates, based on industry patterns for AI-enhanced inventory management. Ingrasys deployed an AI-demand forecasting model that increased forecast accuracy by 27% in just three years, showing the tangible benefits of AI-driven inventory optimization.
The Technical Foundation That Makes It Possible
Your IT team needs confidence that AI integration won’t destabilize proven systems. They need assurance that MCP implementation respects IBM i architecture principles. Most importantly, they need to know their RPG expertise remains valuable, not obsolete.
Profound AI delivers on all three requirements. The technical architecture builds on your existing foundation rather than replacing it, ensuring that decades of refined business logic continue to serve your manufacturing operations while gaining new intelligence capabilities.
For IT teams evaluating feasibility, here’s what matters:
Performance-Optimized Architecture
Profound AI’s MCP implementation respects IBM i system characteristics. AI processing happens asynchronously, never blocking production transactions. Your batch processes run on schedule. Your users experience no latency.
Enterprise-Grade Reliability
- Complete audit trails track every data exchange and function call
- Native IBM i security still in place to protect your critical business systems
- Standard IBM i backup and recovery procedures still apply
Developer-Friendly Integration
Your RPG developers don’t need to become AI experts. Profound AI provides the connectivity that your team needs to bring together your business systems and AI models and tools. When questions arise, you have direct access to support teams who understand both IBM i architecture and AI implementation—a rare combination that ensures you’re never stuck translating between two different technology worlds.
When questions arise, you have direct access to support teams who understand both IBM i architecture and AI implementation, a rare combination that ensures you’re never stuck translating between two different technology worlds.
Measurable Results That Justify Investment
Manufacturing leaders need concrete returns, not vague promises. Based on McKinsey’s Global Lighthouse Network research and industry studies, organizations implementing AI-enhanced IBM i systems through approaches like Profound AI with MCP could potentially see:
Operational Improvements
- Significant reduction in unplanned downtime through predictive maintenance (OptimusAI improved copper production throughput by 10-15%)
- Meaningful improvement in overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
- Measurable increase in first-pass quality rates (Agilent reduced defect rates by 49% in four months)
- Notable reduction in expedited shipping costs (China Resources reduced pickup lead times by 39%)
Financial Impact
- Reduced inventory carrying costs through better demand prediction
- Labor productivity improvements via optimized scheduling
- Energy consumption optimization through pattern analysis (K-water increased production volume by 31% in two years)
- Enhanced customer satisfaction from improved delivery reliability
Strategic Advantages
- Faster response to market changes
- Better capacity to handle product complexity
- Improved ability to meet custom requirements
- Enhanced competitiveness in pricing and delivery
These aren’t far-future possibilities. They’re achievable outcomes when AI enhances rather than replaces your proven IBM i foundation.
Your Competition Isn't Waiting. Why Should You?
Every day without AI-enhanced operations is a day your competitors pull ahead. But here’s the opportunity: while others struggle with complex AI implementations that require wholesale system replacements, you can leapfrog them by futurizing what you already have.
Profound AI with MCP support offers what others can’t:
- Immediate deployment on your existing IBM i infrastructure
- Zero disruption to current manufacturing operations
- Proven technology from the leader in IBM i futurization
- Incremental investment with measurable returns at each step
Take Action Today. Your Smart Factory Awaits
The path from traditional manufacturing to AI-enhanced operations doesn’t require abandoning what works. It requires the right bridge between proven and possible. Profound AI with MCP support is that bridge.
Here’s how to get started:
- Ready to Get Started? – Connect with our team to discuss how AI can transform your business operations. We’ll help identify your highest-impact opportunities and the best path forward. Start the conversation at Futurization@ProfoundLogic.com
- Experience Profound AI In Action – Visit our Profound AI Demo site to see how AI enhances real-world business scenarios. Watch real data deliver real results while your existing systems continue running unchanged—exactly as they should.
- Transform Vision into Reality with Profound AI Discovery – Turn your AI aspirations into an actionable roadmap for innovation and growth. Our Profound AI Discovery maps your unique path from current state to intelligent operations, ensuring every step delivers measurable value.
The clock is ticking. Every day your competitors leverage AI while your valuable insights remain locked in IBM i data is a day you fall further behind. Your legacy applications have been the backbone of your manufacturing success for decades, they’ve earned the right to evolve, not be replaced.
Ready to futurize your manufacturing operations? Contact Profound Logic today and discover how Profound AI with MCP support transforms your IBM i systems into competitive advantages—without sacrificing the reliability you depend on.