Sight. This basic human sense affects our quality of life, and it can be enhanced or diminished with just a glance. Have you ever had a BBQ stain on a white T-shirt? When people walk by, they look at the stain. What about selecting fruits and vegetables at the market? We look for unbruised apples or bananas, berries that are not over ripe and fuzzy (yuck) or lettuce that is not wilted. Aren’t we thankful for pre-flight inspections taken before our plane leaves the gate?
These common, everyday scenarios are immediately accepted or dismissed based on a standard. Same is true in manufacturing. A wide range of industries view visual appearance as an important aspect of quality. The art of decision-making based on visual appearance with the naked eye, or aided by vision systems, is key to success. The eye needs to be “trained” to see the defect. However, subjectivity, or bias, needs to be greatly reduced or eliminated in order to clearly establish what is a pass/fail condition and not what is thought to be.