Sort-Tek is a sorting and inspection company founded in 1997 to help manufacturers efficiently identify quality issues through both automated and manual inspection. Today, Sort-Tek is headquartered in Troy, Michigan, led by CEO Rob Oda, who took over from the founder in 2016.

When inspecting critical components for quality, it is essential that problems be found reliably. Inspections are currently done by people, resulting in the potential for human error that allows defective parts to reach final assembly. Furthermore, current inventory systems rely on disconnected paper documentation. These issues result in a need for an automated inspection workflow.

Our AI-Ready Fastener Inspection Workflow is an all-in-one mobile application, automating Sort-Tek’s part intake and sorting systems.

Floor workers start by selecting a container of parts to inspect and use our vision system to scan each part to identify possible defects. Once completed, the container is marked as sorted and they move on to the next one. This helps operators find problems easier and helps Sort-Tek keep track of records easier by logging them into a centralized database for better storage.

Our software uses a mobile interface to let floor supervisors add new part shipments into the system and view the status of existing part containers throughout the facility. Managers can view all processed and in-process part containers, along with relevant metrics such as the total parts inspected, quantity of defective parts found, and the facility-wide rate of defective parts found per part number. They also have complete control over part documentation and user management.

The front end of our AI-Ready Fastener Inspection Workflow is built using Flutter for iOS, and the back end is implemented using Django. OpenCV and TensorFlow are used for vision processing.