The cost of quality issues can vary widely between companies, but one thing is certain — they’re rarely small. Every company should aim to reduce errors to improve profitability. But when problems arise, identifying a fault is only useful if the issue is reported clearly and promptly. 

In quality control, timing is everything. Feedback must be delivered the moment a defect is detected and passed directly to the responsible party. That information is most valuable when it’s relayed without delay. At Boliden Kokkola’s zinc smelter, the Inspector system has been deployed to track final product quality — offering faster and more efficient inspections and reporting than previous methods. 

Inspector was designed from the ground up for Boliden Kokkola’s demanding industrial environment, specifically for final product quality verification. The system consists of a centralized server with a database, desktop interfaces for management and reporting, and mobile devices for collecting quality data. Key development drivers included minimizing extra work for employees, enabling flexible integrations, and supporting future scalability. 

Today, the physical properties of Boliden Kokkola’s final products are monitored systematically using the Inspector mobile application. Despite the challenging factory hall environment, tablets and the mobile app have worked flawlessly — a major concern at the start of the project. The team was unsure how well delicate mobile technology would survive in such harsh conditions. According to feedback, using tablets has been straightforward, and the design goal of keeping the interface simple and intuitive paid off — making onboarding and training smooth for users. 

During further development, two-way communication was added between Inspector and Boliden’s internal systems, enabling more accurate monitoring of ongoing production processes. At Boliden Kokkola, about 70–90 users now rely on Inspector for recording or reporting final product quality. 

Boliden Kokkola was the first customer with whom InSolution developed a quality control system of this level. The partnership has quickly proven to be a gem — streamlining work and delivering measurable value for everyone involved. Inspector allows quality inspectors to log data directly into a centralized database, enabling objective analysis and increased production efficiency. 

Full case description (in Finnish): PDF file 

Learn more: www.boliden.com