In-Line Quality Inspection & Process Steering
Deliver high-quality products while maintaining efficiency and minimizing waste in production
We offer solutions for quality assurance and manufacturing efficiency, such as in-line quality inspection, defect removal, process steering, and predictive maintenance.
In-line quality inspection provides real-time quality measurements to stakeholders, reducing waste and downtime while improving quality and productivity.
The result? You keep your business running at peak efficiency, which automatically increases its value.
Business Value
The improvements are on 3 domains on which the priority can be different depending on the case:
increase quality, increase throughput, reduce energy and raw material needs.
Keeping in mind these 3 domains, there’s business value to be made around 5 topics and it’s important to take all of these into account when investing in an in-line quality control solution:
Increasing revenue
Improving quality and speed helps deliver better products faster, increasing sales and revenue. Happier customers lead to more repeat business and higher revenue.
Improving profit
By increasing throughput on the same production line(s), you’ll be able to produce more using fewer resources. This will reduce cost and therefore increase profit.
Improved sustainability
Reducing below-standard products saves resources like raw materials and energy. Setting machine parameters for minimal energy use while maintaining quality also helps to improve sustainability.
Improved time usage
By reducing downtime and waste and getting a clear overall picture of quality, production staff need to spend less time on manual tasks and discussions about which actions to take.
Company status and war for talent
Producing higher-quality products in greater quantities than competitors boosts the reputation of your business and attracts talented individuals looking for innovation and a competitive advantage.
Challenges
When creating a content management platform, there are some functional and technical challenges to consider, such as:
Interaction with employees
Questions that come to mind are: How are operators, line managers, and more going to use this solution? When and how does it need to alert them? What actions can the solution take without human approval? How to handle mistakes or provide feedback to the system?
Choosing the type of measurements needed to verify quality
Choosing and positioning sensors correctly is important for accurate quality control. Sensors must be placed in such a way that they provide fast and accurate results during the production process.
Integration
The solution must be integrated into the production line and possibly into the existing MES system or dashboarding tool in order to function properly.
Choosing the right algorithm for the task
Different algorithms detect different things with different speeds and accuracy. As a result, it’s important to know which algorithms you want to use before building a solution.
Building a relevant dataset
Saving images that deviate from the norm is needed for creating a dataset with enough variance. This variation makes the algorithm more robust.
The solution
An in-line quality inspection and process steering solution is composed of several building blocks:
To measure and process quality parameters on a production line, you need to carefully select the appropriate hardware and location. Once the hardware is chosen, it must be installed and integrated into the production line.
To collect data from a camera or sensor, it's important to also gather metadata such as the product SKU, belt speed, and machine parameters.
An algorithm is used on an industrial PC to analyze images or sensor data for quality control. A backup plan is needed for unexpected situations, such as new SKUs or faulty equipment, with monitoring in place to maintain uptime and prevent degradation of the solution.
To improve performance over time, we collect data and store it in a central location with a smart selection process to avoid network congestion. We use a simple interface to label the data and this labeled data is used to update our solution for better performance.
To summarize, our in-line quality inspection solutions alert employees and provide information for taking action. Whether it’s through automated rejection systems or algorithms that optimize machine parameters for high-quality production, our solutions can do it all.
Visual Inspection Tool: A first step to success
We provide multiple solutions to boost production quality and efficiency, including in-line quality inspection, defect removal, process control and predictive maintenance.
The first step to success is in-line quality inspection, which uses non-destructive image sensors to measure quality in real time. This helps operators, process engineers and line managers make informed decisions to minimize waste and downtime and improve both quality and productivity.
Get in touch with our manufacturing experts
Streamline your manufacturing processes with our In-line Quality Inspection and Process Steering Solution.