As I listen to expert epidemiologists explain the structure of the pandemic and anticipate the devastating shortages that might come next, my gut says that our “system” (President, politicians, healthcare industry, manufacturers, supply chain pros, and pretty much everyone else) are still afraid to use […]
Disclaimer: I am not an epidemiologist. I do have a pretty good grasp of the behavior of complex systems in a variety of fields. FWIW, I would love to be wrong in this analysis. I wasn’t planning to start writing posts for my blog quite […]
For 20+ years I have heard objections to the use of video surveillance technology to routinely view and record factory (and warehouse) operations. Setting aside the fact that every facility routinely records security video, it is common to hear that “cameras are not allowed” or […]
A new concept in manufacturing is the prospect of “Industry 4.0”. It’s a factory where the new technologies (automation, digital communication, Internet of Things, cloud, etc) are integrated into a complete production system. The following YouTube video from Siemens makes it seem pretty real. What […]
When most manufacturing companies, indeed most companies of any type, think about “video surveillance”, they automatically think about security, theft and personnel monitoring. Then, they buy security systems and video surveillance systems to collect massive quantities of video like the following examples. Feel free to watch an entire […]
Problem Statement Remember the last time a manual told you to press a button and nothing happened? You spent fifteen minutes on the phone waiting for customer service, and then you’re told you just have to press it past where it starts giving pressure, but […]
With that in mind, I wanted to try something a bit smaller scale and precise. I wondered about the consistency and precision of a professional musician when he is performing a familiar piece. Bryan Crumpler (https://www.instagram.com/ahmade.us/) is a friend and professional clarinetist. He kindly agreed […]
I know that there are some schools that are using or experimenting with Dartfish to improve the teaching of novice interpreters for American Sign Language. This makes sense because accurate signing is a precise physical skill that requires rigorous training and practice. Lasca Thiede is a friend of […]
In my last post, I showed a way to extract detailed operational data from a video clip of human-paced operations. With a customized Dartfish Tagging panel, it was pretty easy to pull data to validate a descriptive probability distribution for the task. As I did […]
A growing number of operations and factory designers use sophisticated discrete simulation tools to test their facility layouts and designs. For major design projects, software systems like the following are often required. Siemens Plant Simulation Software Rockwell Arena Simulation Software These (and similar software packages) […]
In a previous post, I described a novel way to use video to capture visual evidence of process variation and make it far more evident to potential stakeholders. The technique used the Dartfish Analyzer video blending feature from the Dartfish video analysis software. The resulting […]
A lot of process variation occurs over extended periods of time. You can see that something may be happening, but the quantity and nature of the variation is not obvious. The following clip (from our friends at Hartybake) shows a conveyor system that is carrying balls […]
