Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for machine vision companies.
A checklist built from how machine vision companies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Feasibility study records
- System bill of materials
- Image library and model versions
- Installation and line trial
- Support tickets by system
- Retraining and change jobs
- Service contracts and spares
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For application engineers
- For the assembly bench
- For vision programmers
- For support engineers
- For sales and account managers
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Studies by outcome, defect type and customer
- Installed systems by camera and lens model
- Model versions with accuracy results and approver
- False reject and false accept calls by system
- Line trial days against the quoted days
- Spare lamps, lenses and cables against reorder level
- Contracts due for renewal by month
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Calendar
- File storage for image sets
- Accounting export
- SMS
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Can a study turn into a project?
- Does it store training images?
- How do we know which model is running on a line?
- Can accuracy results be recorded?
- Does it run the inspection?
- Can spares be held by system model?
- Can customers raise support calls themselves?
- How do we get a quotation for the software?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Feasibility results are not kept
- Image sets and models drift apart
- Hardware variants multiply
- Support requests arrive without context
- Pilot work is not billed
Prefer to talk it through? See the machine vision companies page.