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An Assured Path To Success™ Program for your Machine
Vision Application
Machine Vision offers
substantial benefits and challenges for automatic inspection applications. The
challenges include:
Getting over that
"where to start?" hurdle to take your idea for automatic inspection / machine
vision to the next stage.
Defining an application
and mission in a way that meets your requirements without accidentally
triggering large costs.
It is all-too-common
for machine vision applications to fail. A closer review reveals that most
"money-back guarantee" programs on DSP type units actually provide minimal
assurance or protection of your actual investment.
High long-term
ownership costs and supportability problems.
FSI's 43 year tradition
of manufacturing and supporting automation products for industrial customers has
been incorporated into our Assured Path to Success™ (APS™) program. The APS™
program is a comprehensive mutual roadmap to success on machine vision
applications. The program covers project inception through long-term ownership,
and also provides a flexible technical "umbrella" which adapts to the intended
roles of all parties involved.
The APS™ program stages are:
1. Expert assistance to
get over that initial hurdle of taking your automatic inspection or machine
vision idea to the next stage.
2. Consultation to
develop a mission definition which best serves your needs and priorities without
accidentally triggering large cost increases. This may include preliminary
engineering reviews, lab testing, preliminary proposals, and development of
initial and final written application definitions. FSI has the systems and
know-how to organize this process and keep it moving forward.
3. Proposal and OK to
proceed. The proposal
includes an outline for either self-implementation (with training) and/or use of
a FSI Certified Solution Provider.
4. Pre-engineering work
by FSI Machine Vision in key areas to reduce overall costs and assure a path to
success.
5. Shipment of a
complete, factory-built, machine vision unit. Successful implementation and
startup per the APS™ roadmap.
6. Implement APS™ plan
to provide documentation and support of post-manufacture work, and successful
long term operation and ownership.
Frequently Asked APS™ Questions
Is FSI Machine Vision acting as a turnkey or just an equipment provider under
this program? Actually, it is somewhere in between. Pricing is generally
at or near "equipment only" pricing. We work closely with the customer and/or
solution provider to provide solutions to any issues which might arise. We
assure a path to success, but we do not take over implementation responsibility.
Why do the usual "money back guarantee" programs provide minimal assurance? How
is the APS™ program different? A closer review reveals that the specifics
of other approaches often don't match up to the impressions given, or to the
APS™ program:
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Third party field
partners, such as distributors, are often used to avoid (rather than
augment) direct factory level commitment, technical involvement and
application engineering. Not only does FSI's factory level involvement help
make the project successful; it also demonstrates a greater investment &
stake in the success of the application.
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When an application
fails, under the typical "money back guarantee" programs, the manufacturer's
only cost is often that of return of a lower cost/capability DSP-type unit.
However, they have still obtained the benefit of the customer having
irrevocably invested thousands of dollars in their own time learning their
particular product. This "win-win" situation for the manufacturer (even if
the application fails) creates little incentive for assuring a viable
approach before a customer invests their time in it. A typical situation is
to give a "thumbs up" based on the obvious nature of the inspection while
not learning or reviewing the more important factors such as part
presentation, space constraints, and environment.
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Proper lighting,
lighting geometry, and lensing are essentials for success, and their
selection must be dictated by the main solution strategy and equipment.
Leaving these important issues to a third party dramatically reduces
technical scope, and provides an easy "out" when the application fails. A
particular lighting manufacturer will generally consider only the 1 or 2
families of lighting that they manufacture. FSI's engineers will select from
all 6 families of machine vision lighting.
How does the APS™ program relate to the FSI warranty? The APS™ program is
separate from and in addition to our warranty.
Does failure to follow a provision of the program APS™ program cause it to
become void? No. All areas clearly unrelated to the "departure" are not
affected, and even in the affected areas it may be reinstated.
Does this Program Work? The APS™ program has achieved 100% success for 4
years! This is particularly noteworthy in a field where 40%-50% of all
applications fail.
Where Do I Start? Contact FSI Machine Vision or your FSI Machine Vision
representative to put the APS™ program to work for you!
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