What is HOP? 6 Steps to Ready Your Factory for AI Deployment

What is HOP? 6 Steps to Ready Your Factory for AI Deployment

15 January 2025

By Sursha Wu

Introduction

With the rise of Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, and AI , digital transformation in factories has become a trend and challenge. Companies aim to enhance production efficiency and quality by adopting automated software and hardware solutions. PowerArena Human Operation Platform (HOP) is the solution to help companies achieve production upgrades.

However, thorough preparation and planning are necessary before implementing HOP. This article explains HOP’s functions and applications, guides companies through the key points of deployment preparation, and offers practical advice.

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What is HOP?

HOP, Human Operation Platform, is designed specifically for labor-intensive production lines. It provides a data-driven and automated management platform for manual operation processes.

Using AI vision technology, HOP records and analyzes production images. It offers real-time production management support, helping management monitor production processes, identify root causes, and prevent errors during production.

HOP’s Product Features

Further Reading: Where is HOP Applied?

Digital Station

Digitized Information for Manual Production Lines

Managers can use the platform to monitor the operational status of each production line. This allows managers to fully track production progress without physically being on-site. It is particularly helpful for managing remote factories, overseeing cross-departmental operations, and building complete production records.

AI Line Balancing

Optimizing Production Efficiency

The system automatically tracks and analyzes key production line data, such as cycle time, process time, and idle time. This significantly reduces the workload of manual management and provides comprehensive support for optimizing production plans.

AI Poka Yoke

Real-Time Poka Yoke in Process Quality Control

Once the SOPs are set, the system automatically tracks operators’ actions. If any operation deviates from the standards, the system sends an alert to notify management. HOP helps identify and resolve process flaws in real-time.

HOP’s Benefits for Production Lines

Improving Production Quality

Implementing effective in-process Poka Yoke mechanisms reduces the workload on the quality control stage

AI vision ensures that operators follow the SOPs in real-time.

By catching errors early, HOP can also increase production line efficiency.

Enhancing Production Efficiency

Production process recording and AI vision analysis ensure ****every step of the production process is completely recorded and analyzed.

Comprehensive production line reports reveal hidden errors. Whether caused by operator errors or SOP design flaws, HOP’s data insights eliminate management blind spots and provide critical support for optimization.

Boosting Management Efficiency

HOP provides objective data support.

The system continuously analyzes production line images and generates detailed production reports.

Managers can gain a clear and intuitive understanding of production line performance and quickly identify root causes of low quality and inefficiency.

With comprehensive information at hand, managers can create more effective optimization plans. Every step of the production process is thoroughly documented.

92% of customers want to know more about HOP’s advantages.

Key Points and Preparations for HOP Deployment

Identify Problems

The first step in implementing HOP is to thoroughly understand your production lines.

We suggest our customer identify the bottlenecks or pain points in their current production or management processes path at the very first step. These might include issues affecting efficiency, quality, or management such as:

  • Insufficient process management systems result in difficulties in the root causes track and trace.
  • Line efficiency is unstable and it is hard to meet targets consistently.
  • Frequent defects at specific workstations and in-process quality control is challenging.

Clearly defining the main problems helps determine where and how HOP could be applied.

Ensure Basic Standardized Operating Procedures (SOPs)

AI needs clear SOPs to perform well.

HOP detects and records the anomalies during production. As the system analyzes and records processes based on predefined workflows, we suggest factories establish a relatively standardized operational framework, such as:

  • Proper placement ranges for components.
  • The correct order of screw fastening.
  • Specific producing steps/actions for operators.

HOP already has a fundamental model which pre-trained to recognize basic elements such as hands, humans, vehicles, and PCBs. This saves time on lengthy AI vision training. Factories with well-defined workflows can further accelerate the implementation process, reduce AI mistakes, and enhance HOP’s operational efficiency and accuracy.

Understand AI’s Requirements and Limitations

AI vision technology relies on training with video data:

AI vision operates by training models with video data. To maintain its performance, regular updates with new videos are necessary. This ensures the system adapts to changes in the production environment, such as lighting conditions, minor differences in component appearances, or process adjustments.

AI is like a newcomer to the factory who needs to learn and gain experience. With updates and annotations, it gradually grows up and eventually is able to deal with various changes like a experienced factory manager.
── PowerArena AI Director, Tzu-Kuei Huang

 

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Blurry Images Increase AI Mistakes

AI vision is better than traditional AOI at reducing false rejections. However, poor image quality, like unstable lighting or shiny surfaces, may still confuse the AI.

HOP’s AI vision technology is a powerful tool for production management. However, ensuring that image data accurately reflects real production scenarios is essential for the system to deliver its full value.

Build Digital Infrastructure

We believe that digital infrastructure is not only crucial for HOP deployment but also fundamental for companies’ digital transformation.

Implementing AI requires comprehensive planning and execution across multiple levels of the organization. The key to success lies in management’s understanding of the current state of the business, setting transformation goals, and establishing long-term strategic plans.

To meet HOP’s operational needs, we recommend that companies ensure their factories have a basic level of digitization or are willing to invest in building digital infrastructure.

HOP involves extensive video transmission and data processing, requiring investments in equipment such as cameras, network setup, and servers.

The specifications of these components may vary greatly depending on the needs of each production line project.

Schedule a consultation with our experts. Discuss your specific requirements.

If your factory already has production management systems like IoT or MES, HOP can integrate with these tools without changing existing workflows. This integration strengthens process quality control and reduces the complexity of system development.

Preparing Team Members

The process of HOP deployment involves communication, feedback, maintenance, and adjustments. These activities require not only a project leader but also participation from production line managers or engineers.

However, your team doesn’t necessarily need to include professional data scientists or technical engineers.

HOP uses no-code interface, allowing h production line personnel to manage it intuitively.

The HOP Dashboard uses a no-code design. Easy and intuitive without any programming requirement.

 

HOP Dashboard uses a no-code design. Easy and intuitive without any programming requirement.

Fostering an AI-Driven Corporate Culture

We hope companies recognize that the value of implementing HOP goes beyond short-term efficiency gains. It opens up new possibilities for businesses and provides long-term development potential.

By applying AI, companies can break free from the limitations of traditional operational models. This enables the creation of more agile and intelligent management methods, helping businesses stay ahead in a competitive market.

Ready to take the next step? Schedule your meeting today.

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