Globe and Mail - High-tech 'agent' acts as spy on assembly line Gadget designed to look for problems
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High-tech 'agent' acts as spy on assembly line Gadget designed to look for problems
By CHARLES MANDEL Special to The Globe and Mail Thursday, February 17, 2005
First came James Bond, then Jason Bourne. Now meet Agent QC.
Like Bond, Agent QC uses advanced high-tech gadgetry to get the job done. And like Bourne, Agent QC spots problems and "negates" them. But unlike those big-screen
spies, Agent QC is a machine.
Specifically, it's a new type of sensor designed to infiltrate factories and look for problems.
Developed in Charlottetown by Sensor Wireless Inc.; an eight-person company with fiscal 2003 revenue of about $800,000 (up $500,000 from the previous year), the system is marketed by a local firm aptly named AgentQC.
The sensor package rolls down production lines disguised in the shape of a regular container, such as a beer bottle, a soda can or a pickle jar. But instead of glass or aluminum, Agent QC is made of durable acrylic and coloured brightly so that it doesn't end up accidentally getting packaged and shipped out with the regular stock when it reaches the end of the line.
The device is used for quality control and helps prevent problems such as assembly line disruptions, breakage and label scuffing. As the Agent QC container travels down a bottling line, the sensors inside record data on force, pressure, temperature, impact and vibration and transmit it wirelessly to a worker's handheld Palm computer, identifying precisely when and where problems are occurring.
So what's with the agent reference?
"We were looking for a name that people would recognize as kind of innovative, but at the same time as a secret agent persona, where you're going into a situation blind," says Wayd McNally, president and chief executive officer of Sensor Wireless.
"You're trying to find a problem inside these production facilities. You're looking for somebody to spy on the whole situation, to see where the problem is occurring," he said. Dennis Hidalgo is in charge of the material testing laboratory for the Coors Brewing Co. in Golden, Colo. His team tested Agent QC on one of the company's bottling lines recently. "This is the third-largest brewer in the nation, fifth in the world," he says. "So we're talking about making a lot of beer here . . . if we can save a little bit of damage to that product, both in the plant and out in the field, we can save lots of money."
The Coors plant at which Mr. Hidalgo has been testing Agent QC moves 1,200 bottles a minute. If the bottles begin to back up because of a problem on the line such as poor lubrication or pressure from other containers further along, it can lead to a line shutdown.
"You can imagine if they're shut down for, say, 15 or 20 minutes," Mr. McNally says, "and they're not moving those 1,200 bottles per minute, how much lost production that is." So Coors started slipping Agent QC, which in this case looked like a bright yellow plastic beer bottle, into the stream of glass bottles to look for problems.
Mr. Hidalgo says the company is pleased with the results. A Jan. 26 report from Coors' Packaging Services Material Testing Laboratory that evaluates the performance of Agent QC concludes that: "These tools should allow the packaging services group to evaluate areas of the packaging lines and pieces of equipment that could not be measured previously. By using this tool, it will be possible to reduce can and bottle damage and breakage throughout our packaging, handling and shipping environments."
Besides its ability to ferret out problems on the production line, Agent QC is grabbing the attention of producers because it's an economical system, Mr. McNally says. Bottlers usually aren't given much latitude when it comes to spending for diagnostic tools, he notes. Even though production problems can cause big losses, most companies budget only around $5,000 for monitoring tools. That's the cost of the basic Agent QC unit, and customized versions of the device are also available.
The company's sensors can keep tabs on more than bottling lines, too. Since its inception in 2002, Sensor has created a number of similar wireless devices for the agricultural and food manufacturing markets. Its other products include the Crackless Egg, designed to weed out production line problems that result in broken eggs; the Produce Wizard, which allows fruit handlers and packers to keep tabs on the quality of their produce; and the Smart Spud, a sensor that detects bruising in potatoes.
Sensor Wireless is working on a couple of new products, one a gas sensor that would sniff out ammonia gas in swine containment areas -- a problem that leads to tainted meat -- and a GPS module that would let companies monitor their goods in transit.
The company will start work on a project involving food tracking this spring with several other technology companies and a consortium of Canadian grocers. Its sensors will be used to trace food products as they move through the supply chain, Mr. McNally said.
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