Instrumental Inc.

“Instrumental saved us 900+ engineering weeks, a core metric for Meta, unlocking capacity across our hardware and software teams.” - Steve McClure, Senior Director of Hardware Engineering, Reality Labs Meta has an ambitious vision for AR and VR and hired the best and the brightest engineers to work on it. Those visionary engineers have adopted cutting-edge tools and brought about iconic designs. Over the course of a single year, Instrumental’s technology saved Meta teams over 900 engineering weeks. See how Meta accelerated #NPI by adopting #AI in their development process. Read the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/gtHURGRF Special thanks to the incredible engineers who gave their insights. Thank you Miles Hansen, Robert Yang, Saara Khan!

“Having a clear perspective on where we expect to get value out of [the software] is good, and sometimes you get value out of places where you didn't expect, and that's great, too. But having that framework in place is part of making it overall successful.” - Samuel Weiss, co-founder and CTO of Instrumental Instrumental has often been the first software purchase that many VPs of Hardware and Manufacturing have personally made. That's why we wrote a guide to buying software for those who usually don’t. Check it out in the Build Better Handbook! #manufacturing #buildbetter #software #hardware #electronics #ROI #Saas

Instrumental has partnered with Product Realization Group! “We are excited to add PRG’s decades of industry expertise to our offering so we can support customers who have improvement goals but do not know where to start. Our collaboration furthers our mission to leverage technology to optimize their engineering and manufacturing operations.”- Anna-Katrina Shedletsky We look forward to continuing to help customers achieve their ambitious manufacturing missions!

“Big data and AI can eliminate reliance on luck and heroism in manufacturing.” Manufacturing makes up half of the global economy, but according to Bain & Company, 20% to 40% of every dollar spent is wasted. Instrumental is changing that! Our CEO, Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, spoke at The AI Age Begins series hosted by Reinvent Futures. She discussed the global impacts of manufacturing waste and how AI is a game-changing technology that can cut the waste in half. Check out her five-minute lightning talk. #manufacturing #AI #cleanenergy #bigdata #eliminatewaste

According to a recent quality in manufacturing survey conducted by ETQ, a  Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence company: 73% of respondents experienced a product recall within the last 5 years. A product recall is a serious and expensive problem for any brand –  respondents in this survey said that their per-incident recall mitigation costs ranged from 10 to 50 million USD. The root cause of product recall usually comes down to a lack of traceability and oversight. Instrumental’s platform gives you that oversight by enabling a digital thread early on in the design process, ensuring that problems are intercepted, and solved, early.  Read about how we have helped customers mitigate high product return rates with AI. The link is in the comments. (Image credit: ETQ) #manufacturing #quality #recall #buildbetter #digitalthread

Here are 3 things to remember when developing your reliability test suite: 1. Be on the lookout for unexpected requirements. Example: The iPhone’s "silent" mode switch makes a satisfying "bzzt," which led users to fidget with it, cycling it more often than logic would have predicted. Solution: Stage “hand carries” or “dogfood”  test devices with real users to uncover unexpected requirements. 2. Don’t skimp on reliability testing in early builds to “save money”. Missing a design issue due to patchy test coverage in your first build is a major blunder. Integrate testing into the budget and schedule. Leverage “waterfalling” of testing to get the most out of every unit you dedicate to reliability testing – one unit might be able to go through 4-5 different tests. 3. Overtesting can slow you down. Larger budgets can lead to excessive testing. The harm isn’t in getting more data, it’s in spending more time than necessary. More testing means more failures, which means more failure analysis and reporting that may not be adding incremental value to your development process. Avoid overtesting by being thoughtful about statistical significance. 🔧 To learn more about developing efficient reliability tests, download Instrumental’s Reliability Test Kit. The kit includes detailed test definitions, setup instructions, and tips for maximizing data while minimizing units tested. #reliability #manufacturing #manufacturing4.0 #productdesign #electronics #engineering

At best, human inspectors catch just 80% of actual defects. That’s a lot of escapes! Regardless many are still skeptical about the accuracy and value of AI for inspection and prefer to use manual inspectors because “at least we know the drawbacks”. Let’s talk about those drawbacks (and benefits). Check out our primer comparing machine vision, manual inspection, and Instrumental in the Build Better Handbook. #visualinspection #AI #manufacturingoptimization #machinevision

Great conversation about #AI in #NPI. Watch the full video here!

Why can’t hardware development move as fast as software development? Our CTO Samuel Weiss has some answers. Drawing from his experience as a product design engineer at Apple and working closely with engineering at Instrumental for nearly a decade, he breaks down the unique challenges of hardware development. To name a few: - Long Iteration Cycles:  Unlike software, where iterations can take hours or less, hardware iterations require significantly more time due to the need to design, manufacture, and test new parts. - Dependency on External Factors: Hardware development is highly dependent on the coordination of various suppliers and manufacturers, which can lead to delays if even a single component is held up. - Extended Testing Periods: Hardware requires thorough functional and reliability testing, which can add weeks to months to the iteration cycle. Because of these challenges, hardware is less agile compared to software. But tools like Instrumental make it possible for hardware engineers to be more agile and efficient. Learn how in the Build Better Handbook. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gvAJxVgy #software #hardware #engineering #agile #futureofmanufacturing #AI #manufacturingAI

“The number one root cause for launch delays is a mismanaged schedule.” If you are an engineer who has ever worked on an NPI, you may have dealt with what is unfortunately an incredibly common manufacturing issue. Only leaders who cultivate a strong culture around realistic schedule management consistently ship more products on time. By prioritizing achievable timelines and efficient iteration cycles, it is possible to reduce delays and drive success throughout the development process. We wrote about the best practices for cultivating healthy NPI schedules. You can read the full article in the Build Better Handbook. https://lnkd.in/gbzPdyJd #manufacturing #NPI