CONTROL & AUTOMATION
AFFORDABLE FLEXIBILITY
INSPEKTO
How Autonomous Machine Vision could
help ward off the looming recession
Today, we are facing a risk of a major global
recession as the result of the COVID-19
pandemic. As manufacturers are planning
the resumption of work after the shutdown
period, experts predict that a major global
recession might be inevitable.
To ward off its negative impact, ‘affordable
flexibility’ is key, and manufacturers need
the ability to adapt, adjust and modify
their production lines, cost effectively, to
meet changing needs in a dynamic and
competitive environment. Most importantly,
plant managers need ready-to-use, outof-the-box
technology that delivers added
value right away, and that they can manage
on their own without any help from external
experts. For industrial inspection, a key
element to deliver high quality products,
Autonomous Machine Vision (AMV), a new
category in machine vision for visual quality
assurance (QA), offers this and much more.
IT’S FUN TO BE AUTONOMOUS
(IT’S CHEAPER, TOO)
The INSPEKTO S70, the first Autonomous
Machine Vision product, is autonomous
in every way, releasing plant managers
from lengthy and expensive contracts with
external third parties, such as systems
integrators. It is highly versatile in that
it can be used to inspect any product,
in any industry, produced with every
manufacturing techniques.
The installation is easy and fun. Thanks
to Inspekto’s Plug & Inspect™ technology,
the plant’s own personnel can install an
AMV system in just 30 to 45 minutes,
with no external intervention. The user
simply presents an average of 20 to 30
good samples to the system, which will
automatically learn what a gold-standard
product should look like.
Much like a human being, the S70 knows
when it has enough information about
the product to start inspecting it. After
inspection begins, the system will alert the
user to every deviation from the defined
standards.
MINIMAL INVESTMENT,
MAXIMAL RESULT
In times of financial instability, the first thing
plant managers do is keep their budgets
under control. The INSPEKTO S70 requires
minimal initial investment, because it can
be purchased for less than one tenth of the
cost of traditional QA solutions. In addition,
it can be installed while the production line
is running, causing zero downtime.
This out-of-the-box, ready-to-go system
comes with everything QA managers need
to perform accurate and effective visual
QA right away. Also, with the S70 there’s
no need to invest in training. Thanks to its
self-adapting and self-learning capabilities,
the system operates in complete
autonomy, communicating directly with the
programmable logic controller (PLC) without
any intervention from the plant’s personnel.
LESS SCRAP EQUALS MORE
PROFIT
If the country hits a phase of economic
recession, cutting costs is not enough.
Manufacturers should also enhance
profitability by reducing scrap and waste,
identifying defective items as soon as
possible and optimising their production
lines so that the same defect doesn’t keep
happening.
Because AMV systems are cost-effective
and extremely quick and easy to set up,
plant managers can position a QA station
at every junction on the production line,
instead of just at the end, realising what
Inspekto calls Total QA. This minimises
scrap, because resources will not be
wasted on items that are destined to be
defective from the very beginning.
Over time, Total QA allows manufacturers
to see where defects are more likely to
occur, so that they intervene in the most
appropriate way. In times of financial
instability, it is paramount that plant
managers identify every opportunity to
improve their production processes,
working at full potential to outrun the
competition.
INVESTING IN YOUR PEOPLE
AMV allows manufacturers to free
personnel from tedious QA procedures,
whether these are manual inspection tasks,
or maintenance of complex machine vision
solutions.
Manual visual inspection carries an error
rate of up to 25 per cent and keeps
employees busy on a task that does not
add value to the business. Consider this
example from the automotive engineering
sector. In the UK, the average value
added by each employee in this sector is
£100,000 a year, so manufacturers lose
millions by assigning several shifts of
employees to tedious inspection tasks.
By investing in an Autonomous Machine
Vision system, manufacturers can move
those employees into productive roles
that create value for the business. A
small investment in an INSPEKTO S70
can therefore save a plant hundreds of
thousands per year.
It’s clear that automotive manufacturers in
particular, but also industry overall could
save millions by reducing the number
of detectable faults in their products.
The New Deal that AMV provides could
certainly be the boost that the economy
requires.
To find out more about Autonomous Machine Vision, visit inspekto.com
34 PECM Issue 46