1-10 employees
A artisan bakery producing 500 loaves daily had inconsistent product quality due to manual visual inspection. Approximately 8% of products had defects (uneven browning, improper size, surface cracks) that were caught too late or reached customers.
Installed a simple AI-powered camera system at the end of the production line that photographs each loaf and uses computer vision to detect defects. Defective products are automatically flagged for removal or discounting.
Mounted industrial camera above conveyor belt. Connected to AI vision software running on a basic PC. Trained the AI on 2,000 images of acceptable and defective products. Set up alert system to notify staff of defects. Integrated with production tracking spreadsheet. Installation and training completed in 3 days.
The AI needed to be trained on defects specific to our products - generic models didn't work. We involved production staff in defining what constitutes a defect, which improved accuracy. The system paid for itself in reduced waste within 2 months. Staff initially worried about job security but appreciated the AI catching errors they might miss during busy periods.
We almost bought an expensive enterprise vision system ($25,000+) designed for large manufacturers. A consultant helped us find a simple, affordable solution that met our needs. We also learned to adjust AI sensitivity - initially it was too strict, flagging minor cosmetic issues that customers didn't care about.