When purchasing an inspection solution you must think about the end user. Often it is a project engineer or engineering manager that specifies a vision system for their inspection requirements. 

Let’s look at the key stakeholders in a factory that interact with vision systems

1. The operator - this includes the personnel at the process line .
2. The engineer - this normally is the process engineer that is responsible for the operation and upkeep of the process lines.
3. The quality supervisor - this is the individual tasked with using the data to guarantee quality of goods and the interface between customer service and production.

 The Operator

The operator wants something simple to use that will not add complexity to his daily duties. 

• Fast setup for a new job
• Clear feedback when there is an issue
• Historical information on existing run

The Engineer

The process engineer needs a simple system that he can use at the line or his desk to set up recipes and to troubleshoot process issues. 

• Software must be easy to configure
• System must have a complete set of features
• Support machine troubleshooting

The Quality Manager

The quality manager needs to be able to apply standards, check against those standards and monitor customer shipments against customer orders. The goal is simple, optimize production while reducing claims to zero. The features the quality department requires are:

• To able to generate reports for each production run
• To be able to remove waste if generated from an upstream process
• To be able to archive results for customer service 

Summary

An inspection system should consist of a group of applications that are user specific and designed for the job in hand. An operator producing product today has no need to access archived data from a month ago. A process engineer or quality manager both have different requirements.