From prototype to production in 30 days

March 18, 2025

"We need this in production yesterday."

That's how our conversation with a precision manufacturing client began. Their manual quality control process was bottlenecking production, with human inspectors catching only 87% of defects—unacceptable for aerospace components.

They had tried building an AI solution internally for 8 months. The prototype worked in the lab but failed spectacularly in production. Sound familiar?

Here's how we got them from broken prototype to production-ready system in exactly 30 days.

Day 1-3: Understanding the Real Problem

The existing prototype was technically impressive but practically useless:

  • Model: Custom CNN with 47M parameters
  • Training data: 10k carefully curated images
  • Lab accuracy: 96.8%
  • Production accuracy: 23%

The disconnect was obvious once we spent time on the factory floor. The prototype was trained on perfect lighting conditions, clean backgrounds, and optimal camera angles. Production reality was harsh fluorescent lighting, oil stains, and cameras that vibrated with machinery.

Key insight: The problem wasn't the model—it was the gap between lab conditions and production reality.

Day 4-7: Data Strategy Overhaul

Instead of collecting more "perfect" training data, we focused on production-representative data:

# Data collection strategy
production_conditions = {
    'lighting': ['fluorescent', 'mixed', 'shadows'],
    'backgrounds': ['oil_stained', 'scratched', 'dirty'],
    'angles': ['', '±15°', '±30°'],
    'vibration': ['low', 'medium', 'high']
}

# Synthetic data augmentation
def augment_for_production(image):
    # Simulate real production conditions
    image = add_realistic_lighting_variation(image)
    image = add_background_noise(image)
    image = add_camera_shake(image)
    return image

We collected 2,000 images under actual production conditions and generated 50,000 augmented variants. Quality over quantity, but with production reality baked in.

Day 8-14: Model Simplification

The 47M parameter model was overkill. We replaced it with a much simpler architecture:

# Original: Complex custom CNN
class ProductionCNN(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        # Simple but effective architecture
        self.backbone = efficientnet_b0(pretrained=True)
        self.classifier = nn.Linear(1280, 2)  # defect/no_defect
        
    def forward(self, x):
        features = self.backbone.features(x)
        pooled = F.adaptive_avg_pool2d(features, 1).flatten(1)
        return self.classifier(pooled)

Results:

  • Parameters: 47M → 5.3M (89% reduction)
  • Inference time: 340ms → 45ms (87% faster)
  • Production accuracy: 23% → 94.2%

The simpler model was more robust to production variations.

Day 15-21: Production Infrastructure

We built the deployment infrastructure with reliability as the top priority:

Edge Deployment

# Lightweight inference server
@app.post("/inspect")
async def inspect_component(image: UploadFile):
    # Preprocess for production conditions
    processed = preprocess_production_image(image)
    
    # Run inference
    prediction = model(processed)
    confidence = torch.softmax(prediction, dim=1)
    
    # Log for continuous improvement
    log_prediction(image, prediction, confidence)
    
    return {
        "defect_detected": prediction.argmax().item(),
        "confidence": confidence.max().item(),
        "processing_time_ms": processing_time
    }

Continuous Learning Pipeline

# Automatic retraining trigger
def check_model_drift():
    recent_accuracy = calculate_recent_accuracy()
    if recent_accuracy < ACCURACY_THRESHOLD:
        trigger_retraining_pipeline()
        
# Human-in-the-loop validation
def validate_uncertain_predictions():
    uncertain_cases = get_low_confidence_predictions()
    for case in uncertain_cases:
        human_label = request_human_validation(case)
        add_to_training_set(case, human_label)

Monitoring Dashboard

Real-time monitoring of what actually matters:

  • Defect detection rate
  • False positive rate (production disruption)
  • Processing latency
  • Model confidence distribution

Day 22-28: Integration & Testing

The final week was spent integrating with existing manufacturing systems:

  • Camera integration: Worked with existing industrial cameras
  • ERP integration: Automatic logging of quality control results
  • Alert system: Immediate notifications for detected defects
  • Fallback procedures: Human inspection for low-confidence predictions

Day 29-30: Production Deployment

We deployed gradually:

  • Day 29: Shadow mode (AI runs alongside human inspectors)
  • Day 30: Full production deployment with human oversight

Results After 30 Days

  • Defect detection accuracy: 98.5% (vs 87% human baseline)
  • False positive rate: 2.1% (acceptable for production)
  • Processing time: 45ms per component
  • Uptime: 99.7%
  • ROI: System paid for itself in 3 months through reduced defects

What Made This Possible

1. Focus on Production Reality

We optimized for production conditions, not lab conditions.

2. Embrace Simplicity

Simpler models are more robust and easier to debug.

3. Continuous Improvement

Built feedback loops from day one.

4. Human-AI Collaboration

AI augmented human expertise rather than replacing it.

5. Gradual Deployment

Shadow mode allowed us to validate before full deployment.

The Real Timeline

While we delivered in 30 days, the foundation was built on:

  • Years of experience with similar problems
  • Months of refined deployment processes
  • Weeks of proven architectural patterns

Speed comes from preparation, not shortcuts.

Lessons Learned

  1. Prototype ≠ Production: Lab conditions lie
  2. Data quality > Data quantity: 2k real images beat 50k perfect ones
  3. Simple models win: Complexity is the enemy of reliability
  4. Monitor what matters: Technical metrics don't equal business impact
  5. Plan for failure: Things will break; plan for graceful degradation

The manufacturing client now processes 10,000 components daily with consistent quality. More importantly, they understand their AI system and can maintain it independently.

That's what production-ready AI looks like.


Need to get your AI prototype into production? We've done this dozens of times. Let's talk.