Improving Manufacturing Applications of Machine Learning by Understanding Defect Classification and the Critical Error Threshold

Machine learning (ML) is unlocking patterns and insight into data to provide financial value and knowledge for organizations. Use of machine learning in manufacturing environments is increasing, yet sometimes these applications fail to produce meaningful results. A critical review of how defects are classified is needed to appropriately apply machine learning in a production foundry and other manufacturing processes. Four elements associated with defect classification are proposed: Binary Acceptance Specifications, Stochastic Formation of Defects, Secondary Process Variation, and Visual Defect Inspection. These four elements create data space overlap, which influences the bias associated with training supervised machine learning algorithms. If this influence is significant enough, the predicted error of the model exceeds a critical error threshold (CET). There is no financial motivation to implement the ML model in the manufacturing environment if its error is greater than the CET. The goal is to bring awareness to these four elements, define the critical error threshold, and offer guidance and future study recommendations on data collection and machine learning that will increase the success of ML within manufacturing.