Artificial Intelligence and the aesthetic challenges of the luxury industry
How can this be achieved?
Companies in this sector spare no effort, constantly innovating to strengthen their quality control. This involves training new talent, more rigorous supervision, and even the integration of automated control systems.
Training quality operators is a key factor, and not always easy. While the functional control of a component can be relatively objective (the part fulfills its role or doesn't), aesthetic control is more challenging because of its subjective nature.
Divergence between inspectors is frequent: up to 15%1 of the parts examined are the subject of disagreement, particularly for aesthetic defects. The difficulty lies in the occasionally small nature of the defects, which vary considerably in size and seriousness, making it difficult to distinguish between an acceptable and objectionable defect. The impact can be as high as a 40%2 loss of sales for manufacturers.
In these fields, where craftsmanship is essential, a zero-tolerance policy towards imperfections is neither realistic nor desirable. The key to this dilemma lies in the perception of aesthetics.
Faced with the inability to standardize human perception, leading watch and jewelry brands have turned to objective evaluation strategies. These techniques go far beyond simple lists of defects: they involve meticulous analysis, in which every detail is measured, classified, counted, weighed, assessed in its entire context, and examined in different lights before a final verdict is reached.
In this quest for near-perfection, operators first carry out a visual inspection with the bare eye, before using more precise equipment such as binoculars if necessary. This requires an expert eye and time.
To save these experts time, the integration of AI-assisted vision tools, capable of providing objective and reproducible data, is becoming increasingly common.
The next step?
They are using these technologies not only to detect defects but also to identify their causes, in correlation with the manufacturing processes.
This technological revolution, which has been eagerly anticipated, promises to fundamentally reshape quality control in the luxury goods industry. Paper archives of defects are gradually giving way to digital databases, and quality standards are spreading among the major houses and their partners.
In this sector where tradition and innovation meet, the age of artificial intelligence seems to be the next chapter in a fascinating story.
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1 : Data retrieved in the field through our internal studies.
2 : https://asq.org/quality-resources/cost-of-quality
