Radwell International’s Blog

Machine vision is making major contributions to the manufacturing sector, primarily by providing automated inspection capabilities as part of quality control procedures. Formerly viewed as barcode readers, these systems now use automated cameras and software to monitor products, collect data, check for inconsistencies, scan labels and perform other functions at high-speeds and without the need for worker intervention.

According to the Automated Imaging Association, machine vision encompasses all industrial and non-industrial applications in which a combination of hardware and software provide operational guidance to devices in the execution of their functions based on the capture and processing of images.

An Encoder is a device, circuit, transducer, software program, or algorithm that converts information from one format or code to another, for the purpose of determining position, speed, or direction.

Small to mid-sized companies face many challenges in today’s business climate. In the “Amazon” era, customer

expectations continue to rise, presenting a great need for businesses to continually improve processes and methods. This constant need for improvement is all in the hopes of mitigating challenges and turning them into wins throughout the customer buying cycle. 

In terms of shipping customer products, the struggle can be very real. There are many things to consider and often overcome. A manual shipping system requires accessible inventory and humans to execute every aspect of bringing that inventory to customers. Inventory must be chosen based on a customer’s order and picked so that it can be packaged. The item must then be sent through a series of checks before it is packaged in the correct sized box and weighed for shipping. After the item is labeled, the correct shipping method must be chosen. The prepared shipment must be brought to the end of the shipping cycle for sorting prior to carrier pickup. There is a lot of movement in a manual system and humans must execute the steps within a manual system.