Is that thing on?

Can you say, right now and with complete honesty, that all your vision systems are operating as intended?

I suspect you hesitated, because you know there’s a good chance that one or more are turned off or disabled. This happens all the time, and usually it’s for the best of intentions. Production need to get product out the door and the vision system is rejecting too many, so they figure out a cheat. But if the system has been set up correctly, this means you’re probably shipping nonconforming product, and at some point that’s going to cost you.

So how do you make sure production actually use the vision systems you’re installing?

First, you need to ensure they do the job that’s required. This means understanding the long-run piece to piece variation rather than developing a system from a sample set of five pieces.

Second, be willing to work with Production and Quality to fine tune the system until both are happy with it.

And third, build in some interlocks to counter all those clever tricks Production can play. For an excellent list of ideas, look no further than “Intelligent Vision Stops Bypass of Quality Control,” published in Control Engineering, May 2009.