Champions of Manufacturing — QAD | Redzone, the company behind the world’s number one platform for manufacturers, today unveiled Manufacturing Intelligence, a new intelligence layer designed to work across manufacturing processes, workflows and systems, cementing its leadership in helping manufacturers leverage AI to shift from systems of record to systems of action. Manufacturing Intelligence is built specifically to help manufacturers shift from asking what happened to answering what the business should do next and then acting upon it. Manufacturing Intelligence was among a robust series of AI-powered innovation announcements made by QAD | Redzone at its annual Champions of Manufacturing event being held September 21-23 in Chicago.

Manufacturing Intelligence represents the next horizon in QAD | Redzone’s strategy to help manufacturers move beyond systems that primarily record and manage information toward systems that increasingly understand, decide and create action. The vision builds on the QAD | Redzone Manufacturing Platform available to manufacturers today, bringing together Adaptive ERP, Redzone Connected Workforce, Supply Chain and ChampionAI to connect the systems, people, processes and decisions that drive manufacturing performance, from the shop floor to the top floor.

Unlike intelligence confined to an individual application, Manufacturing Intelligence will operate across the broader manufacturing environment. Over time, it will bring QAD | Redzone’s manufacturing domain expertise together with manufacturing data, workflows, and AI to help manufacturers identify changes sooner, understand their implications, determine the appropriate response, and execute that response within the systems where work gets done. It is also designed to extend beyond the QAD | Redzone technology stack, allowing manufacturers to apply manufacturing-specific intelligence across heterogeneous environments without first replacing the systems they already have.

“Manufacturers don’t need more AI for the sake of AI. They need better outcomes, to protect margin, respond faster to disruption, improve execution, and to help their people perform at their best by leveraging intelligence to create for customers manufacturing environments that can continuously understand what is happening, determine what should happen next, and turn those decisions into action,” said Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of QAD | Redzone. “Manufacturing Intelligence is our vision for bringing intelligence across the systems, workflows, and decisions that determine outcomes. We didn’t back into this name; we’re purposefully claiming it for the industry because it has the potential to help all manufacturers become faster, more resilient and more competitive as Champions in their field. And manufacturers don’t have to wait for that future to begin. All of the innovations we’re announcing today give them practical ways to create value now, wherever they are in their transformation.”

In a related announcement, QAD | Redzone unveiled that it plans to integrate technology from NVIDIA, combining NVIDIA’s accelerated computing and AI with QAD | Redzone’s manufacturing expertise and operational context spanning ERP, connected workforce, supply chain, production, and quality. This combination of technology and manufacturing expertise will help shape a federated intelligence layer that can understand manufacturing context across systems without requiring manufacturers to replace the technology they already run, connecting intelligence wherever it lives.

QAD | Redzone said no other provider can bring the same combination of depth and reach to that mission: Manufacturing Intelligence is built on QAD | Redzone’s foundation of deep manufacturing domain expertise, real operating data from more than 6,000 plants worldwide, and decades of experience inside the world’s most regulated, most unforgiving manufacturing environments — automotive, life sciences, food and beverage, industrial and high tech.

“Anyone can make AI look smart in a demo; making it useful inside a real plant is much harder. That takes critical manufacturing expertise: a real understanding of operators, processes, constraints, and what actually improves performance. QAD | Redzone has built that foundation across thousands of manufacturers,” said Jeff Winter, Industry 4.0 and digital transformation expert, and founder, Jeff Winter Insights. “QAD’s vision for where this can go is highly compelling and closely aligned with my own. It combines real ambition for AI with the manufacturing depth needed to make it useful.”

Attendees at Champions of Manufacturing in Chicago will get the first preview of Manufacturing Intelligence with real-time demos, workshops, and an environment where they can test drive the innovation. Manufacturing Intelligence is expected to be in market in the Spring of 2027.

Introducing Market-Leading Innovation Specifically for Manufacturers

In addition to announcing Manufacturing Intelligence and the integration of NVIDIA, QAD | Redzone continues to set itself apart for industry-leading innovation, unveiling significant new offerings at Champions of Manufacturing 2026:

  • Expanding AI across Adaptive ERP, the company announced Champion Assist, bringing intelligence directly into everyday ERP, along with new persona-based Champions spanning procurement, sales, sourcing and accounts payable.

  • Agentic AI comes to ERP with Lynx Champion, an application that speeds modernization by analyzing legacy customizations by applying AI to reinvent the transformation.

  • Redzone is bringing AI directly to the manufacturing frontline with new purpose-built Champions into the flow of work for execution roles, including Line Lead, Ops Manager, Inspector, Kaizen, Yield, Recognition, and Skills agents all with a focus in driving better manufacturing execution. This innovation is part of an expanded integration between Redzone, QAD ERP and other critical systems.

  • Delivering agentic AI into Global Trade Compliance with a dedicated Champion, a critical innovation that shifts global trade from reactive compliance toward proactive trade intelligence.

“AI value doesn’t arrive alongside ERP; it arrives through it because the business context is already there, something the QAD team intuitively understands,” said Robert Kramer, founder and managing partner of KramerERP, a boutique advisory firm specializing in AI, ERP, SCM, data, and security, with an emphasis on real-world results. “These kinds of AI-powered innovations, now further enhanced by a strong vision for manufacturing intelligence, are the whole idea behind moving from ERP systems of record to systems of action. When combined with shop floor systems, we can see how technology enables transformation, while empowered people determine outcomes.”

These innovations announced at Champions of Manufacturing come as manufacturers face growing pressure from labor constraints, margin pressure, supply chain volatility, shifting global markets, and increasing operational complexity while simultaneously being asked by boards and leadership teams to demonstrate how AI will create measurable business value. QAD | Redzone’s approach begins with the manufacturing problem, based on deep expertise and more than 40 years of manufacturing experience and data, rather than the technology: identifying a meaningful workflow, understanding the friction and economic impact, applying intelligence where it can improve the outcome, prove the value and expand from there.

For more information on QAD | Redzone’s Manufacturing Intelligence vision, visit the QAD Blog.

About QAD | Redzone

QAD | Redzone is redefining manufacturing and supply chains through its intelligent, adaptive platform that connects people, processes, and technology into a single System of Action. With three core pillars — Redzone (frontline empowerment), Adaptive Applications (the intelligent backbone), and ChampionAI (agentic AI for manufacturing) — QAD | Redzone helps manufacturers operate with Champion Pace, achieving measurable productivity, resilience, and growth in as little as 90 days. To learn more, visit www.qad.com or call +1 805-566-6100. Find us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and Instagram.

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