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Michigan Technology Firm, Witness Inspection, Finds Machines Increase Accuracy; Fatigue and Human Error Contribute to Frequent Flaws

20 November 2000

Michigan Technology Firm, Witness Inspection, Finds Machines Increase Accuracy; Fatigue and Human Error Contribute to Frequent Flaws

          Take Note Florida Recounters: According to Manufacturers,
              Machine Sorting Beats Hand Sorting by a Landslide

    HOLLAND, Mich., Nov. 20 The debate rages on in Florida.
Is hand counting more accurate than machine counting?  If the experience of
Witness Inspection is any indication, machines are much more accurate than
humans at counting and sorting.
    Russ Richardson should know.  Few people are more familiar with the
inherent problems of hand sorting than he is.
    In 1998, Richardson founded Witness Inspection, a Holland, Michigan-based
company that is now awaiting patent approval on a vision-based automated
inspection system to detect flaws in parts meant for manufacturing
applications.  The automated system makes it possible to eliminate flaws and
achieve an error rate of zero parts per million, a crucial quality standard in
today's demanding manufacturing environment.
    "Hand sorting and counting result in very high error rates," Richardson
said.  "Fatigue and short attention spans are enormous contributors.  The
Florida election workers are certainly susceptible to fatigue and distraction
in the same way.  That is why so many of our customers want this automated
technology.  It never gets tired and it never gets distracted."
    Richardson believes that manual hand counts in Florida will certainly be
less accurate than the machine counts already concluded for the simple reason
that machine technology is designed for such tedious work and human beings are
not.