Questions to Ask a Vision Inspection Vendor

A vision inspection vendor evaluation is the process of comparing suppliers against criteria that predict how well a system will actually work on your line, beyond how it looks in a demo. The questions below apply to any vendor you are evaluating, including TARKO.

Where does the inspection decision actually run?

Ask whether the pass or fail decision happens locally at the line or depends on a connection to a cloud service. A local decision keeps working through a network outage. A cloud-dependent decision does not, and that matters more on a production line than almost anywhere else.

Whose defect samples train the model?

Ask whether the system is trained on your actual parts and defects, or shipped pre-trained on generic defect classes. Generic training can work for common, well-defined defects. Anything specific to your process usually needs training data from your own line to be reliable.

Who owns the training data afterward?

Ask what happens to the images collected from your line, whether they can be reused across other customers, and whether you can get a copy. This is a contractual question as much as a technical one, and it is worth resolving before, not after, signing.

How does the system talk to my existing automation?

Ask specifically how a defect result gets communicated to your PLC or line controller, over what protocol, and who is responsible for the PLC-side programming. A vendor who has a clear, specific answer here has done this before. A vague answer is a warning sign.

What happens during a network or power outage?

Ask what the system does if it loses network connectivity or power mid-shift. Does it fail safe, fail open, or simply stop, and how long does recovery take. This question exposes whether local inference claims are real in practice.

What does support look like after installation?

Ask whether the vendor stays involved after commissioning, what response time to expect if something breaks, and whether support is remote, on-site, or both. This determines how much in-house expertise you need to keep the system running.

How does a new defect type get added?

Ask what the process is when a defect type shows up that the system has never seen before. Does it require a vendor visit, a new training cycle, or can your own team add it. The answer tells you how much the system will keep up with your process as it changes.

What is the actual scope of the quote?

Ask exactly what is included: cameras, compute hardware, software, installation, integration and training. Vendors structure quotes differently, and an apples-to-apples comparison requires knowing what is and is not in each number.

How many sample parts do you need to get started?

Ask how many good and defective sample parts the vendor needs before training can begin, and how they expect to get them. A vendor with a vague answer here has likely not thought through how long data collection will actually take on your line, which is often the longest phase of a project, not the shortest.

What happens if the line layout changes?

Ask what happens to accuracy if the camera has to be remounted, the lighting changes, or the part is repositioned on the line for an unrelated reason. A system that degrades badly with small physical changes will need more ongoing attention than one built to tolerate them.

Can I see it running on a part like mine?

Ask for a reference, a demo on a comparable part, or a pilot scope, rather than accepting a general capability claim. A vendor confident in their system should not be reluctant to show it against something close to your actual use case.

What Does a Vision Inspection Vendor Not Do?

Ask directly what is out of scope: hardware manufacturing, PLC programming, general security surveillance, whatever applies. A vendor who answers this clearly is easier to trust than one who implies they do everything.

None of these questions require special expertise to ask. What they require is writing down the answers you get and comparing them across vendors side by side, rather than relying on memory after several separate sales conversations. A short written comparison, even an informal one, tends to expose the vague answers faster than any single conversation does.

These same questions apply if you are evaluating TARKO. See what TARKO's applications and industries pages say about scope, or send your part details through a free feasibility audit and ask them directly.