Several critical components need to come together to form a machine vision system. This includes the sensor (typically within a camera) that captures a picture for inspection, the processing hardware (a PC or vision appliance) and software algorithms to render and communicate the results. In addition, lighting, staging, and lenses are required to set up a machine vision system.
Even in a normal year, achieving high levels of quality is no small feat; it's a daily challenge that requires buy-in from everyone. This year, as COVID-19 wreaked havoc on supply chains, worker safety and consumer demand, maintaining high levels of quality became a nearly superhuman feat.
An SPC (Statistical Process Control) Software customer recently inquired if I could discern any issues in a process, as their customer had identified problems with three recent shipments. They provided data for the customer’s current year shipments for a variety of KPI (key process indicators) in an Excel file.