During the assembly of machine components, numerous parts are documented and inspected. To this end, serial numbers, component statuses, and assembly results are photographed and subsequently evaluated by the quality management department.
The existing solution was based on a Power Apps application that had already been developed, but which proved to have significant limitations in practice. The built-in camera function only provided low-resolution images. As a result, serial numbers or small component features often could not be clearly identified in the photos.
For quality management staff, this meant additional work: images had to be interpreted manually or retaken. In some cases, relevant details could not be reliably identified at all. As a result, inspection processes took longer, and the quality of the documentation was not always sufficient.
The goal of the project was therefore to optimize the image capture process so that serial numbers and component details could be reliably recognized while ensuring that the workflow for assembly and quality inspection remained as efficient as possible.
Initially, the existing application was analyzed, and various options for image capture in Power Apps were evaluated from a technical perspective. The goal was to find a solution that would enable significantly higher image quality while remaining integrable into existing workflows. To this end, several technical variants were prototyped and compared with one another.
The existing application and documentation workflow were first examined in detail. This revealed that the app’s built-in camera function captures images only at a limited resolution. As a result, serial numbers or small component markings often could not be reliably recognized.
In the next step, several technical approaches were prototyped and tested against one another. These included various camera workflows within Power Apps, upload mechanisms for external images, and alternative methods for integrating the smartphone camera.
The key improvement came from using the integrated text recognition feature in Power Apps AI. This feature allows users to capture images at full camera resolution and then automatically extract text information—such as serial numbers—from the image.
By using the smartphone's built-in camera, the image resolution was increased from about 700 pixels to approximately 7,000 pixels. This also makes features such as optical zoom and the device's camera optimizations available. As a result, even small serial numbers can be reliably captured.
The extracted serial numbers are automatically matched against existing records. At the same time, the images are automatically uploaded and archived. This ensures that they are centrally available later for quality checks, verification, or documentation purposes.
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