Group Thee - Industrial Engineering

Hi! Welcome to our blog. Let's introduce: we are four Industrial Engineering students @Fontys University of Applied science. The following year and also our last year will be an exciting one: we will be graduating! On this blog we will be posting about our coming project called 'Technology & Engineering'. The project is about choosing a technology we are curious about and finding detailed information on present and future developments. We will take you with us on our investigation about a certain technology. The blogspost will we about for example interesting information we found en company visits, The research will be about the software and hardware site of a technology. Which technology we chose, will be explained in our first post! Stay tuned and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us!

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What does a vision systems for quality control mean to your chosen strategy

If a company decides to implement vision technology it will have impact on the strategy of the company. Because it can be a big investment and the return on investment is not clearly visible. Furthermore is the Vision system made for one particular solution and thus not flexible at all (if it is bought to check apples it is not able to check banana’s). But strategically it gives a company chances as well. The company gets lots of reliable information about the amount of rejects. This gives them a strong negotiating position to their suppliers. You can clearly see when a batch was statistically worse than others. Furthermore this data can be used for continuous improvement projects. So it is possible to see coloration between defects and things that change during production. This will lead to a better process in the end.

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What strategy fits a vision systems for quality control?

In the strategy study of Treacy and Wiersema (1995) is stated that every  company should focus on one of the 3 strategies as shown above. In this post we will explain how vision systems for quality control can be used to succeed in the core values of each strategy.

Customer intimacy

In the strategy of customer intimacy it is essential to keep your customers happy all the time. To deliver defects to a customer could be a big dissatisfier. So in this strategy, vision systems can be used in the control of the finished products, to make sure that the products the company delivers to your customer are 100% up to de specification limits of the customer. In this way, the customer will never get disappointed about the quality of the product, which is a big part of the customer intimacy strategy.

Operational excellence

The main focus of operational excellence is to have the lowest total costs. So it is important to cut the processes that don’t add any value to the product. With vision systems, defects can be can be defected before more value is added. Furthermore vision systems can replace human checks. The vision systems are lots faster and do the checks better. Another advantage of vision systems is that they can do very repetitive work 24/7 without needing breaks. So the companies with a operational excellence strategy, it is possible to cut down production costs by implementing vision systems. But the business case of this change will be different in every company.

Productleadership

The product leadership strategy focusses on having a better product than your compotators. In this strategy vision systems for quality control are not a clear match with the strategy. This because vision systems will not add value to the product. But in some cases it could help you to distinguish from your compotators. For example the usage of vision systems with UV-lightning. In case of the food sector, UV-lightning can be used to detect bruises that can not be seen with the human eye. If you can filter products with these bruises out, this could mean that you deliver better products than compotators that don’t use vision technologies. So all in all product leadership and vision management are not a direct fit, but it is still possible that product leadership will help a company achieving their strategy

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Business case for a Vision quality control system with benefits and costs

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Future of Vision

In 2017, according to a recent report, the global machine vision market was valued at $7.91 billion. By 2023, the global market is expected to reach $12.29 billion – a compound annual growth rate of 7.61%. This robust growth is caused by a number of broader economic factors.

Do we got your attention? The future of vision is bright and big. In the link below there is an article where you can read how the Internet of Things, Non-Industrial Applications and the ease of use will get vision systems BIG. 

https://www.visiononline.org/blog-article.cfm/Machine-Vision-Trends-to-Watch-in-2018-and-Beyond/93

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‘Technologies based on artificial intelligence, such as deep learning and CNNs, are an important part of modern machine vision solutions today. Deep learning enables companies to train neural networks themselves without any in-depth expert knowledge and minimal effort, especially when programming defect classes during error inspections. The result is that companies can save money and benefit from much more robust recognition rates as well as better classification results.’

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Product market combination

Now we know some details about quality control with vision, it is possible to learn something about the product market combination. The basic principle of vision is to detect failures in a production process. So vision does not prevent the faillures.

Focussed on the food industry, vision is an ideal method to control the quality of the food. With a human eye it is impossible to recognize decay in an apple. Besides that, the vision controls much faster than a human.

Another PMC could be a warehouse. The QR-codes on a parcel, are readable by vision. So less people are needed to control and scan the parcels.

A new trend with vision control is the development in the maintenance. With vision it is possible to detect iron wear. This system can detect heath or wear, which a human eye can not detect. See the picture below. 

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Research plan

Preparation of the company visit

After the first two days we read a lot of information about quality control with vision. The technology is applicable in a lot of industries. In this task, the technology is focussed on the food industry. This industry has high requirements on quality. So it is very interesting to learn something about the technology. To be prepared for the company visit, everyone has read themselves into the technology. The following sources have been used:

-       Google Scholar

-       Beltech website

-       Youtube video’s

-       InVision website

-       Sciencedirect.com

If you do like to visit the sources, please enter the document ‘source list’.

After the company visit

With a lot of inspiration we arrived at school after the company visit. We have seen a lot of new technology about vision. So it was a good plan to categorize the subjects. For ourselves we know a lot about the technology. But it is important to translate this knowledge to the blog. The blog consists of the following subjects:

-       Business plan

-       Strategic plan

-       Influence plan

-       Product Market Combination

-       Future

The posts will be on the Blog very soon!

Market plan

During the days we are also making plans for the market coming Friday. We will show the possibilities with vision control. The visitors of the market will experience how the technology works. Beside that, with the information we have, it is possible to learn the visitors something behind the technology. Not every company would like to have a vision quality system!

Source list

Bibliografie

Brosnan, T. (2002 November). Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Brosnan, T. (2014 january). Journal of Food Engineering.Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Mikrocentrum. (2018, 11 7). vision robotics and motion. Retrieved from Vision-robotics.nl: https://www.vision-robotics.nl/nieuws/een-greep-uit-de-innovaties-te-zien-op-vision-robotics-and-motion-2018/

Parent, S. (2018, 11 6). From Human to Machine. Retrieved from Qualitymag.com: https://www.qualitymag.com/articles/91976-from-human-to-machine-how-to-be-prepared-for-integration-of-automated-visual-inspection

Redactie. (2018, 11 7). line-kwaliteitscontrole. Retrieved from Flandersfood: http://www.flandersfood.com/category/tags/line-kwaliteitscontrole

Redaction. (2018, 11 6). automated-visual-inspection. Retrieved from SCNSOFT.com: https://www.scnsoft.com/services/image-analysis/automated-visual-inspection

Van Koert, L. (2018, 11 7). Vision-in-de-voedselproductie.Retrieved from Automatie-pma: https://automatie-pma.com/pma/sensoren-en-actuatoren/steeds-meer-vision-in-de-voedselproductie/

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How vision systems for quality control influence business management

In this post we will explain to you what consequences vision systems for quality have for the entire company. We have used the ILC model to categorize the influences. The picture above shows potential changes in a company when a vision system for quality control is implemented.

But, every vision system can be different. This is why you can’t really copy all the changes from the model above directly to your own company. For example a vision systems for quality control focused on traceability won’t ensure a reliability of 99%.

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Isn't Vision just Risk Management?

So what problems can vision inspection solve? A lot. Whether it’s misaligned labels, defective products, packaging errors or under-filled bottles, vision inspection systems are an essential component in today’s processing and packaging lines. Vision inspection systems can complete tasks that are practically impossible for humans to do reliably and consistently, around the clock. Another biggest advantages is that the system will notify you of a problem instantly, meaning you can rectify the issue before the whole batch is produced and the order is shipped. And this last big advantage is interesting. In the attached video, you’ll see a implemented vision system at Princes Limited. They have a vision system on the top of food cans. This is to check that the code is correct compared to the barcode which is read at the labeling machine.

Should an incorrect label be applied to the can, large grocery chains in the UK can impose fines – often as large as $1M – to their suppliers, in addition to the added cost of product recalls and potential loss of future business. So just one incorrect label can give a company so much trouble and it costs them a lot of money. So besides that a vision system can do things humans can’t, it’ also a big part risk management. It’s about making sure that your customer get’s the right quality. Or more important: make sure that your customer doesn’t get poor quality!

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'For a long time the manual inspection of the manufacturing process was seen as the most reliable way of maintaining standards. But even the most keen-eyed worker is prone to make mistakes and the repetitive nature of the work will eventually begin to show.' Click on the article to find out more about why a company should use Vision.

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The challenges of food and beverage production 'solved' with Vision systems

A very interesting video about the value a Vision system can have for a company. Go check it out!

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Bread inspection at Niverplast with machine vision from STEMMER IMAGING

See what it takes to deliver only perfect bread to your customers - size and form of the bakery doesn't matter thanks to the easy and flexible software from ...

Do you remember the previous post about the vision system being develop for Dutch Bakery? (If you haven’t seen it, go check it out!) In this video you will see a similar Vision system in practice. It’s important to notice that vision could be used to do a quality check but the vision system will also help to keep track of your products and collect data about your proces. Enjoy!

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04-09-2018 | 14:50

Visit to Beltech Industrial Automation with Vision

Company visit: check! ✔ Today we visited Beltech at the flight forum in Eindhoven. Ron van Dooren loaded us with interesting information about quality checks with Vision in the food industry. In their lab we saw a few project’s they are working on. One of the projects you can see on the picture left above. This project is for the Dutch Bakery. The vision system is placed in the proces just before the dough pieces are going into the oven. The vision system will detect when dough peaces are laying on top of each other or when the dough’s touch. The rest of the information Ron gave us: we will write several blog’s about it this week. So..... We stay in touch!

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04-09-2018 | 13:45

Arranged a company visit!

Just reached out to one of our contacts at Beltech Industrial Automation with Vision. Beltech is the perfect match for our technology ‘Automated quality control with vision’. Next Monday 10 o’clock, Ron van Doren (Technical Sales manager) will provide us with information about quality control with vision in the food industry! He will give us information about a real life case for a company in the food industry (situated in their lab). Also we will talk about future possibilities with vision and quality control. More information about this visit next monday! We stay in touch!

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04-09-2018 | 10:45

Yesterdays kick-off meeting!

Yesterday we had a short but open minding meeting with professor Dirne about our coming exciting project! The following week we are going to dig deeper in the world of automated vision quality control. To get as much information as possible, we’re going to use several sources. One of the most important source will be a company visit. Herefore we already have some company’s that we find interesting. Today our agenda consists of arranging a nice company visit and make a planning for the next days! We will be in touch!