Production quality control platform “Feecc”
For almost 4 years now there is a long-lasting experiment held to apply Robonomics technologies to a real-life production business. FEECC is a decentralized manufacturing data accumulation system that enables traceability of key production stages and ensures the integrity of data that cannot be altered or substituted thanks to blockchain-based immutability.
From coffee experiment to production quality control
The idea behind FEECC started with a coffee experiment. What if a seller can provide irrefutable proof of bona fide of your cappuccino? And what if it is not a cup of coffee, but rather a big supply chain for a car manufacturer. Or, even more responsible, a medical equipment company?
Web3 magic: IPFS and blockchain storage
The recording software was triggered via a big red button and a QR-code label printer, but beneath the hood there was a whole set of Web3 magic. First, the video wasn't stored in a regular file system. Instead, IPFS was used. The key benefit behind this is the thing called CID - Content Identifier. A fixed-length key to find your file from all over the world (theoretically).
Second and most important, the CID was put in a Datalog - a Robonomics Parachain pallet feature which allows you to store any string up to 512 bytes in a blockchain forever! This means that by putting the content-related pointer into a crypto-backed data storage you ensure the transparency and trust into that cup of coffee. You may not need it every time you take your favorite lavanda raf, but that one day it tastes bitter, you and the seller may be totally sure who's the culprit here.
Not only a customer service, but an internal MES module
MES stands for Manufacturing Execution System. It is responsible for manufacturing process optimization and analysis and there is a specific spot where FEECC may come in handy. See, there is a medical equipment company, EndoStars, which uses manually-assembled components and those are subject to risk of defects. Prior to FEECC installation you could never tell if the defect is a supplier fault or the assembler's mistake. More than that, there were several processes yet to be optimized like providing assembly schemes in a digital form rather than searching through tons of papers.
The assembly process
The assemblers get their parts and trigger the recording process with a web application button (this application also contains assembly instructions). Then, they get a unique barcode to stick to the part and assemble it under video surveillance. When the assembly process is finished, same as with coffee, they get the data stored in IPFS to be distributed and the CID put into the Robonomics chain to be saved forever. Optionally they may get a QR-code (database-independent) for a customer but the majority of use cases is for an inner quality control department.
Quality control department
Before departing the goods to the customer they perform a quality check. This process is also facilitated with some FEECC web modules and the protocol is saved in the chain as well, but the key point here is the link of the product with its assembly data (videos as for now). This link is irreplaceable since the data is in the blockchain and the address is also linked to the content itself. With that the quality control department may be sure of the innocence of their colleagues and the assemblers may protect themselves against blame.
Architecture
FEECC lets you save valuable data in an irreplaceable form to avoid fraud and ensure safe supply chains. This may come with other manufacturing modules with the same core idea inside: secure and transparent data storage and use.
What are the numbers?
The coffee experiment started 4 years ago and the medical manufacture integration occurred in fall 2021. With all that we can definitely say that FEECC is a real-life-proved Web3 application to provide secure data accumulation and storage for productions.
