There are few things more frustrating than getting a much-anticipated delivery only to find it broken.
For a business, whether it's supplying a car part or an oven door, manufacturing accuracy and delivering quality goods to consumers is essential.
Eigen Innovations, an AI software company based in
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Quality is King
Defects on the production line are inefficient and costly. In a world powered by consumerism and with the cost of goods increasing, companies must consider the cost of quality in manufacturing. Weiss defines the cost of quality as the total cost associated with the production of poor-quality products.
'The manufacturing industry typically has razor-thin margins,' Weiss says, 'and yet many companies don't know their cost of quality.' When they do add it up, he says, quality 'can cost a manufacturer up to a whopping 40% of revenue.'
But Weiss notes that detecting defects is incredibly difficult. Many companies perform sample testing, where they regularly pull products off the production line and check for problems. But since only a small fraction of products are tested, it's difficult to have confidence in those goods that were not inspected.
That's where Eigen comes into play. Unlike traditional quality testing, Eigen's solutions inspect every part, on every line, in every factory. Manufacturers get access to data and insights to help make real-time decisions and improvements that ultimately reduce the cost of quality - and consequently boost revenue.
Instead of discovering a defect after hundreds or thousands of parts have already gone through the line, a defect can be identified in real time. The manufacturer will know exactly where the problem is, which parts are affected and what error occurred. Eigen's
The Need for Speed
Weiss says Eigen's in-line quality machine vision software,
Eigen's system takes data from across the factory - including PLCs (industrial PCs), cameras, machines and sensors - and consolidates all of it into one traceable digital record. The digital record serves two purposes: It's used to train patented AI models that help deliver inline inspections and to identify root causes of issues and ultimately improve processes. As you can imagine, the process is very data-intensive.
Ultimately, the cloud capabilities are what customers find the most useful. 'Customers have instant access to enterprise-wide improved inspections,' Weiss says. 'And once the customer is happy with an inspection model's level of accuracy, they can do a one-touch deployment across all machines with Eigen's inspection solution.'
So what would normally be a manual, time-intensive process - including downtime on the factory floor for installation - can now be done with the click of a button.
Happy Customers for the Win
Southern Fabricators, a
Here's how
Every step of the inspection process is catalogued, providing full traceability down to individual serial numbers. Weiss explains that this full traceability helps mitigate recalls. However, if a recall is needed, the factory can identify which set of products had an issue and only recall the affected products.
Weiss says Eigen's customers are looking for performance and access to real-time data. And Eigen was tasked with finding a solution that could withstand industrial environments full of harsh tools like high-heat welders.
When exploring options, graphics processing units were ruled out due to debris and heat concerns. In comes the
Flexibility is Key
Weiss says what drew Eigen to
Another advantage of OpenVINO Horsepower. Weiss says the speed of OpenVINO is unmatched. He gives an example of a customer that produces specialty paper. In just eight seconds, machinery can build up residue, causing
A Competitive Edge
What separates Eigen from other AI software companies is its focus on manufacturing. 'We live and breathe manufacturing production environments,' says Weiss. 'That's all we do. We only do inline quality inspection in factories.'
Eigen also employs thermal applications, using cameras to help manufacturers find defects that the human eye can't see - like its consideration of the quality of a weld. The company's
Eigen's solution is aimed at 'simplifying the path of AI adoption without the need for data scientists or writing code,' says Weiss. He explains that Eigen's easy-to-use technology empowers technicians to resolve potential issues quickly and train AI models at the touch of a finger.
Despite headlines claiming artificial intelligence is replacing people in the workforce, the reality is that many factories are struggling to fill jobs. 'If you have any process that is overly dirty, dangerous or dull, it should not be done by humans. It should be automated,' says Weiss. 'Let's get those people doing higher value, higher impact tasks.'
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