Toly, a leader in cosmetic packaging manufacturing, has adopted Spark from Scortex, an automated quality inspection solution powered by artificial intelligence, for its production lines. In use on three production lines, this technology aims to reduce defect rates and improve product quality. In our interview, Olaf Zahra, Technical Director and Sustainability at Toly, explains the motivations behind this choice and the results achieved.

 Can you introduce us to Toly ?

Olaf Zahra : Toly is a manufacturer and supplier in the cosmetics industry. We produce packaging for skincare, color cosmetics, fragrances, and other beauty areas.

What was your challenge in terms of quality control?

Olaf Zahra : Cosmetic packaging often has complex decorations, and some of them are very fine. If we rely solely on operator inspection, it is sometimes impossible to detect all defects. We needed an automated system to ensure 100% quality control of the products we manufacture.

What were your quality control objectives?

Olaf Zahra : Our primary objective is related to the fact that some of the very fine texts printed on our products are legally binding, and because they are very fine, anomalies can easily pass through the quality control processes without detection. Implementing a system that detects the problem immediately can reduce rejections and aims for a defect rate of less than 1%, even on very fine decorations.

What results and gains were achieved through the deployment of Spark?

Olaf Zahra : We have previously used vision systems, but these systems were always very complicated to set up. Training the system always took hours, days, sometimes weeks. The greatest advantage we have seen with the Spark system is the ease of setup. We can switch from inspecting one decoration to another in a few minutes, an hour at most, instead of several days.

Sometimes, it takes a few minutes for the operator to realize that the quality of the product has changed. However, within a minute, we are already processing 50 to 60 pieces, and each passing minute represents significant rejections. The ability to detect the problem immediately, stop the process, and make adjustments gives you a considerable advantage in terms of reducing the defect rate.

Have you achieved your quality objectives with Spark?

Olaf Zahra : Absolutely. As I mentioned earlier, the ease of use of the system is the greatest advantage. And the investment is more than justified by the reduction in rejections and defect rates.

Do you plan to deploy Spark on other production lines?

 Olaf Zahra : Yes, we installed our first Spark kit about 18 months ago. We have 3 in total, and we plan to deploy them until we cover all our production processes with decoration. We wish to try the system on other processes beyond decoration as well.

 With the adoption of Spark, Toly has reached an important milestone in automating the quality control of its cosmetic packaging. This technology has helped reduce defect rates and improve product quality. The results obtained lead Toly to consider deploying Spark to other production sites, marking a significant step in their pursuit of performance and efficiency.

Spark is an automated quality inspection solution powered by AI that provides a fast, easy-to-deploy approach without costly expertise. Considerable advantages for production sites looking to begin their transition from manual to automated quality inspection or to optimize their existing quality control processes, achieving high-performance quality control, mastering the cost of quality, scaling production, and reducing customer complaints.

Spark is developed and fully assembled by Scortex in France.  

Here are other articles that may interest you :

·        Automated quality inspection with Spark: what are the real benefits ?

·        The applications of automated quality control with AI in the cosmetics industry

·        Case study: lipstick manufacturing

·        Video interview with Olaf Zahra from Toly