8 minute read
Are you ready for Industry 5.0? Meet Zetamotion
In this issue of Industrial Process News, we are delighted to feature Zetamotion as our AI-driven Quality Control as a Service (QCaaS) Provider Company of the Month.
Industry 4.0 has been defined by the hallmarks of automated processes and the implementation of the fast-moving world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) but for many inside-industry experts, Industry 5.0 is already here, not some hypothetical concept on the horizon.
But what exactly is Industry 5.0 and what does it mean for the manufacturing sector?
Industry 5.0 is primarily focused on sustainability, through a greater tailoring to production needs and therefore reducing unnecessary surpluses. There is some erroneous thinking about Industry 5.0 and one myth is that AI is designed to replace human workers. The opposite is true: AI machinery doesn’t make people surplus to requirements but in fact enhances their skills, increasing their efficiency.
Let me reiterate: Industry 5.0 is here to support our fragile ecosystem, biodiversity, through the latest advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT) through streamlined machine communication, data is exchanged in real-time, and defects are accurately detected in assembly lines/ production chains. This mitigates against unnecessary wastage and increases manufacturing tenfold.
The European Commission has backed the introduction of Industry 5.0 in its landmark report, ‘Industry 5.0: Towards a resilient people-centred and sustainable European industry,’ and highlights indeed that the premise that technology serves people, not the other way round.
But how do manufacturing companies get up-to-speed with Industry 5.0?
With everyone from Google to Amazon advertising downloadable Quality Control systems, it is difficult to navigate the myriad of technical support options. One option is to download a remote QC system independently but it is often a complicated system of inputting data, labels, countless verification, tweaking and at best that will leave you with only an 80% success rate and possibly the unavoidable hiring of additional Artificial Intelligence engineers.
But what if there’s a third way? Beyond manual control or downloadable QC systems?
We’ve featured Zetamotion before in Industrial Process News as a Top Exhibitor at the 2023 Manufacturing & Engineering Week 2023 and we’ve been keeping an eye on this innovative company ever since. Zetamotion is definitely a company to watch, what we would call in old money: a mover and shaker.
Zetamotion is a pioneering, AI-driven Quality Control as a Service (QCaaS) provider; supporting manufacturing companies across the globe automate their quality control processes at scale. The UK Manufacturing industry alone is ranked 8th globally by value of output (source: MakeUK), which equates to a £224 billion output annually (source: House of Commons Library.) Furthermore, UK manufacturers spend up to a staggering 40% of sales revenue on quality control (QC), with automated QC systems increasingly being adopted to help reduce these astronomical costs. Surprisingly, only 30% of manufacturers have made the shift to these cost-effective strategies, leaving the vast majority still grappling with archaic manual processes.
How can companies embrace Industry 5.0 through AI-driven Quality Control?
We spoke to Zetamotion CEO: Wilhelm Klein to find out more, “We have heard many customers discuss what we term, ‘burnt ground’ narratives. They described horror stories of trying to adopt QC systems but the computer vision couldn’t distinguish between existing and new products, if they were capable of adaptation it took considerable system retraining, resulting in lost production and shut down assembly lines on many occasions. Leading them to abandon QC systems and revert back to traditional, manual processes for an easy life. Therefore, what we have now is a digital divide between a successful adoption of QC systems and those who have been left in the dark with rudimentary manual systems. This is akin to being stuck with steam engines and dreaming of Industry 5.0 resembling science fiction. However, even those using automated/digital QC systems are only averaging an 80% success rate on defect/anomaly detection and classification. That margin of error is money down the drain and a waste of resources.”
“What we’re proposing with our system is a 99%+ success rate, offering higher ROI and more importantly, higher yield, greater volume of quality products to market, lowered raw material costs and less product waste in a circular economy.”
Right from the offset, the three founders of Zetamotion: Wilhelm Klein, Ha Nguyen and Huy Phan brought a collective, eclectic skillset of machine learning, international law and technology ethics to create a ‘market-driven’ AI platform. Founded in 2018, the three savvy entrepreneurs started work on the computer vision AI platform that would become the Quality Control as a Service (QCaaS) solution to solve the perennial problem of quality control manufacturing bottlenecks.
The team has now expanded to include experts from UK, Germany, China, Russia and Vietnam, with a strategic focus on cutting-edge R&D from its Vietnam engineering office and Hong Kong R&D facility.
“We will be opening a new, larger R&D facility in the wider London area next year. Though we are sectoragnostic, we have recently increased our visibility in the aerospace industry and it is handy that so many aerospace companies will be close to our new stateof-the-art R&D facility. We are currently working on our second release cycle and perfecting 3D imagery capabilities.”
“Zetamotion works with international large blue-chip companies through to SMEs and have already worked with metal, glass, roofing (composite material) sectors,” explained Wilhelm.
Though still a relatively young company, Zetamotion has proved it is a major disrupter by being selected to join the Aerospace Xelerated team. This is a pioneering initiative run by Boeing and its partners to bolster startups in the industry, through investment and support. With a notoriously stringent vetting process, from each 500-application cohort, only 10 are selected.
One of the benefits of being a member is expert recruitment support with attracting the brightest female commercial specialists and AI researchers from the STEM industry. We spoke to Wilhelm from the seminal Dubai Air Show, where Zetamotion was exhibiting as part of the Boeing Aerospace Xelerated team, “Being a valued part of the Aerospace Xelerated team, means we are actively recruiting more talented, female staff to our already diverse staff. We are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive team and helping to plug the gap in the under-representation of women in the AI sector.”
“At the Dubai Air Show, we have already met many industry experts across the aerospace sector and have been discussing our Spectron QCaaS Platform patented AI technology solutions with many new faces.”
“For many in the aerospace industry and across the whole manufacturing sector, there is an intrinsic fear around multiple downloadable tools, with faceless bots guiding you through the process. We pride ourselves on offering a highly, personalised partnership, who inherently understand and ultimately address your quality control pain points. We are all about relationship-building and helping companies navigate plain-sailing towards industry 5.0, for a more streamlined, sustainable QC landscape.”
There are many unique benefits to partnering with Zetamotion, as outlined below:
Zetamotion aims to be part of a holistic production solution, through interfacing with pre-existing networks and IoT infrastructures.
Zetamotion offers evidence-based Proof of Concept to new customers at the early stages of partnership.
Within a week, the expert team at Zetamotion can deliver a demonstration of streamlined Quality Control for your company.
The QCaaS platform operates inspections on premises, to mitigate against Intellectual Property rights concerns and cybersecurity.
New products can be on-boarded quickly, within 24 hours without cumbersome data/image uploading.
Flexibility to handle diverse materials/products, including non-uniform coded materials or low production volumes.
Offers much more than a traditional single-point end-of-line inspection.
Can successfully predict interval defective products/predict analysis trends.
Reduces QC time by 95%+, achieving a 99%+ accuracy in defect identification from the start.
50% improvement in product yield and operational cost reduction.
Reducing waste by over 50% – supporting sustainability targets.
Meet Industry 5.0 targets by increasing product yield, reducing waste and optimising skilled labour targets.
All Zetamotion labs are powered by AWS Ocean Energy, showing a corporate commitment to greener energy.
Zetamotion offers a future-proofed Al-driven QCaaS platform to enhance and streamline the QC process across the manufacturing sector, preparing companies for the holistic benefits of Industry 5.0, where technology serves people, not the other way around.
Zetamotion will be at Smart Industry Expo:
16th-18th April 2024
NEC, Birmingham. (Stand number: M93)
For more information, please see the details below:
contact@zetamotion.com
https://www.zetamotion.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/zetamotion
