Although the many logistical aspects of product assembly make the welding stage of manufacturing inherently challenging, assembling products in high-mix environments is particularly demanding, since several different product models are processed every day. Many part numbers and part scenarios increase complexity and opportunities for mistakes. Polaris Industries, a manufacturer of snowmobiles, all-terrain, and other recreational vehicles, found machine vision to be a simple, low-cost solution for mistake proofing.

In this assembly situation, all specified parts must be placed correctly in each product variation. Any errors will reduce product quality or increase costs when faulty assemblies must be repaired or scrapped. Reducing the number of errors—and incurring some cost to prevent them from occurring—contributes directly to a company’s bottom line. In building a case that justifies spending money to save money, experience has shown that reducing scrap rapidly surpasses all other cost benefits in any process that produces more than a trivial amount of scrap. In addition, any throughput gains will increase the company’s overall revenue.

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