Key points
Technological advances have changed how manufacturing companies work, as the ever-evolving environment dictates that manufacturing processes have to be both cost-effective and flexible. The next generation of factories will have to be constantly adapting to make use of the growing number of digital tools available.
Visual analysis has become one such invaluable tool: It can increase inspection to 100% with existing operator headcount, and reduce the possibility of losing contracts due to faulty products. It also allows us to see problems along the production line relating to products and machinery in real time.
If visual analysis becomes more established in factories on a larger scale, then these factories will be able to modernise more easily, as implementing it does not require a complete overhaul.
More factories will be able to reduce the cost of inspecting whilst maintaining product quality and close the loop on data analysis. Below are some of the fundamental aspects which highlight the value that visual analysis gives to manufacturers.
The Emergence of A New Method of Analysis
For the majority of the time that factories have been in operation, humans have been the only product inspectors. Around the 1970s, process control principles began gaining prevalence in factories, and companies established practices of just sampling one or two parts from a particular batch of the product (the idea being that whatever applies to a small sample of a product applies to 100%).
Although this was considered a sound method of product testing, companies had to live with the risk of sending a bad product to a customer, which could incur a significant cost if faults were found. Factories are now able to monitor products more efficiently with the help of comprehensive visual analysis.
The value drivers for visual analysis include product monitoring, equipment monitoring, and monitoring of workers. Product monitoring involves evaluating the visual quality of products and good or defective, and using it to improve manufacturing process yield/scrap.
Equipment monitoring assesses the current condition of factory floor machines in terms of their lifespan and how many cycles have been run. Monitoring workers with cameras is not purely about surveillance, but rather allows factories to catch errors during parts assembly or later in the production process.
Real-Time Processing Can Bring About a Sea-change in the Industry
The concepts of ‘vision as a sensor’, complex models and more accessible advanced machine capabilities are all recent developments. It is only in the last decade-plus that machine vision has become both accurate and fast enough to potentially satisfy inspection needs for some manufacturing processes, where human intervention was previously required.
We now have the computing power – at the speeds necessary – for high volume applications. But while these developments have been implemented in the production of autonomous vehicles and security systems, they have not filtered through to mainstream factory floors yet.
As the techniques for visual analysis continue to improve, the cost of specialised sensors and other items needed for a digitally-focused factory will reduce.
These sensors used to be very expensive, but 3D stereoscopic imaging is now a lot more accessible. Factories are now beginning to understand the value of big-data decision-making, whereas previously many of them were not interested in the data which this technology can offer.
The most significant element of this new form of visual analysis is that it can be done in real time. We used to only see real-time visual analysis in high volume manufacturers where critical data from the process could be entirely digitised – as is the case in oil and gas or chemical processing plants.
However, now we’re witnessing this level of flexibility and capability in factories which were previously just on the cusp of being ready for this kind of analysis. We will begin to see more and more factories modernise, and thus deliver on promises they make by closing a previously open-loop data set.
Visual Analysis Provides Security on the Receiving End of the Supply Chain
Visual analysis in the manufacturing industry also has the added bonus of reducing the potential feeling of uncertainty towards the end of the supply chain. If a buyer knows that the parts they are receiving were made correctly, it’s an important guarantee.
The implementation of visual analysis allows them to be confident that the products have been checked properly with the latest technology, and that there is a level of traceability in the process.
For example, if someone receives a product from several suppliers, they would previously have had to pay the cost if there was an error. But with more widespread visual analysis in place, the fault can be traced back more easily, benefiting all parties in the supply chain.
Most factories primarily care about the quality of their products and finding flaws early in the process to reduce the cost of a faulty product. In factories making products with different grades of quality, such as the purity percentage of a particular metal, visual analysis can help to establish that the product meets this quality requirement across the board.
In cases where manufacturers have customers at the higher-end, in terms of the products which they are producing, it becomes even more important that poor products do not slip through. The value of implementing a visual analysis system is that it could be the difference between losing a contract and retaining a customer for another year.
Visual analysis provides compelling opportunities for manufacturers to catch up with other industries in terms of digitisation. Whilst oil and gas manufacturing has progressed enormously, sectors such as pharmaceuticals and basic goods are still in their early stages of modernisation.
The use of real-time analytics and innovative process control enables errors to be noticed immediately, which reduces scrap and rework costs.
Predictive shutdown systems can achieve greater monitoring of equipment and increase operational safety in the process. Implementing digitised visual analysis techniques across different manufacturing sectors could see a transformation in the industry, empowering manufacturers to drive profit while reducing costs.
