With Computer Vision & Machine Learning we finally have one irrefutable version of the truth.

In my very early days of manufacturing and operations we were taught that the only way to really know what was going on was to walk around the manufacturing floor, warehouses, stockrooms, and shipping and receiving docks. It might even include a stop by the inspection area to see what items were rejected or going through a material review board. Even back in the mid 1970’s, we had computer systems to capture inventory transactions, purchase receipts, and the tracking of shop or work orders on the floor. The problem arose from the timing and accuracy of reporting. It was rare to operate with one integrated system, especially since those were the early days of material requirements planning (MRP) systems. So disparate systems and data processing errors were the norm, not the exception.