History of Automated Inspection Equipment
An industry veteran looks back on more than 50 years of work in the automated inspection industry.
Fifty+ years ago, I started my career in automated inspection equipment, primarily in the automotive industry. This is what I witnessed in domestic automotive quality control: In the 70s and 80s, when Japanese cars started taking market share, domestic manufacturers began to accept the fact that the problem was more than just lower prices.
One major domestic manufacturer built automatic transmissions in three of their USA facilities and purchased others from a Japanese manufacturer. Mysteriously, they found that transmissions from Japan had fewer warranty problems than those made domestically.