Multidisciplinary cooperation
We next go to Machan International, located in Taichung’s Waipu District. On the day of our visit, Darren Chen, a special assistant at the company, and five Taiwan AI Academy alumni from other companies in various industries, have gathered together to follow up on a project they originally undertook as part of their management course at the academy’s Taichung branch.
“Come on. I’ll take you inside the factory for a look,” says Chen, after bringing them to Machan’s facility in neighboring Dajia District. Inside, different stations on active production lines stamp, bend, weld and paint metal sheets, which are finally packaged and loaded into containers to await shipping.
The group pauses at the painting area’s inspection station. Several inspectors are using flashlights to check the products for defects. Meanwhile, a camera mounted above the production line continuously films the finished goods.
When Chen began the management course a few months ago, he proposed a project based on his company’s production processes: “AI-based Defect Detection for Dynamic Coating Processes.” His hope was to develop an AI system that could use imaging to automatically detect defects, thereby replacing human quality assurance workers, who are fallible and have a high turnover rate. His presentation of the proposal piqued the interest of a group of classmates, and they formed a team to bring it to fruition.
Team members used their expertise in their own fields to contribute to the work. The proposed system’s use of image recognition requires first categorizing image data, and then using those images to train the machine to distinguish good products from defective ones. A classmate whose job involved quality control helped them establish the criteria for identifying defective products. Another classmate, a project manager, handled scheduling, expenses and manpower allocations. The academy then matched the group with someone in its technical program to do the necessary programming.
The team has long since completed the course, but for Machan their project was only the first step of its journey into the AI world. Chen explains that the four-month-long course provided them with only enough time to build the prototype, and says that they are still in the process of collecting image data. He anticipates that the system will achieve 95% accuracy within six months, at which point they will bring it online. Their next steps will be to connect the inspection system to the factory’s Internet of Things, and to match the system’s defect checking parameters to their manufacturing tolerances, so that they can begin to use the AI to carry out quality checks.
A fully developed version of the system should have applications at other firms that apply similar finishes to sheet metal, including those in the aerospace, machine tools, bicycle, and hand tools industries.
As important as AI is to Machan, it could be still more important to Taiwanese manufacturing as a whole. It has the potential to help traditional manufacturing businesses break free of the cost-cutting treadmill they have been stuck on. As Richie Tsai, chief operating officer of Taiwan AI Academy, says: “Taiwan has many hidden champions, but so what? We still can’t compete. In upgrading and transforming [our industries], we not only need to entice foreign firms to place orders here, we have to compel them to!” Can Taiwan become an AI powerhouse? Tsai is confident that we can.
The Taiwan AI Academy emphasizes practical training. Students work together to develop interdisciplinary solutions to problems.
Chen Sheng-wei, chief technology officer at E. Sun Financial Holdings, is a veritable “AI missionary,” urging the business community to recognize the importance of AI.
The members of the “AI-based Defect Detection for Dynamic Coating Processes” team became close while working on the project.
Traditional manufacturing industries that incorporate AI into their production processes can remake themselves into highly technological “sunrise industries.”
Taiwan AI Academy’s well-trained graduates will play an invaluable role in the business world. (photo by Kent Chuang)