Tencent Free \"Lobster\" Installation in 17 Cities - I Did the Math as an Aquatic Business Owner
Tencent Free \"Lobster\" Installation in 17 Cities - I Did the Math as an Aquatic Business Owner

Hello everyone, this is programmer Wan Feng actively working on various AI projects.

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🦞 The Day I Received Tencent's Call, I Thought It Was a Scam

On March 10th, I received a call from Shenzhen.

"Hello, we're from Tencent Cloud Industrial Cooperation Department, we want to talk to you about free deployment of AI lobster inspection system..."

My first reaction was: Scam?

Free? A big company like Tencent would install a system for free for a small aquatic farm like ours?

But the other party was very detailed:

  • Equipment they provide
  • Installation they handle
  • Training they conduct
  • First three months cloud service fees also waived

The only requirement: Allow them to use our factory as a case study for promotion, and cooperate to collect some desensitized data.

I hesitated for two days, and finally decided to try. Anyway, it's free. The worst case is wasting a few days.

📋 Installation Process: Much Simpler Than I Thought

On March 12th, Tencent's technical team came with 3 people.

I thought there would be major construction, but:

9:00 AM - On-site survey

  • Examined our sorting assembly line
  • Measured installation locations
  • Confirmed power and network interfaces

11:00 AM - Equipment installation

  • Installed 2 industrial cameras
  • Deployed light system
  • Connected edge computing box (just a small host)

2:00 PM - System debugging

  • Collected sample images of 500 lobsters
  • Did initial model calibration
  • Tested inspection process

5:00 PM - Personnel training

  • Taught us how to operate the backend
  • Taught us how to view data dashboard
  • Taught us how to handle exceptions

Total time: 8 hours

The next morning, the system was officially operational.

💰 First Week Data: I Was Amazed

Our factory is not large, daily processing volume is about 30,000 lobsters.

Before using manual inspection:

  • Needed 6 workers in shifts
  • 300 yuan per person per day
  • Daily labor cost: 1,800 yuan
  • Monthly labor cost: 54,000 yuan

First week data after system operation:

MetricExpectedActual
Inspection speed150 units/min187 units/min
Accuracy95%97.8%
Misjudgment rate<3%1.4%
System stability99%99.7%

The best part: Now only need 2 people for re-inspection and packaging, the other 4 people can do other work.

🎯 Second Week: Discovered New Problems

System operation was smooth, but also exposed some issues.

Problem 1: When small and large lobsters are inspected together, accuracy decreases

Solution: After communicating with Tencent team, they remotely updated the model, adding size pre-classification.

Problem 2: Large light changes at night, occasional misjudgments

Solution: Adjusted brightness auto-regulation parameters of light system.

Problem 3: Workers have resistance to new system

This is the funniest one. An old employee told me: "Wan Feng, will this machine take our jobs?"

I said: "No, it just helps you do the heaviest work. You do re-inspection and packaging, it's easier work."

And, because efficiency improved, we received more orders, actually needed to hire new people.

📊 One Month Later Cost Comparison

Now the system has been running for a full month, let me do a complete accounting.

Before (Pure Manual)

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Labor cost: 6 people × 300 yuan/day × 30 days = 54,000 yuan
Management cost: QC supervisor 1 person × 8,000 yuan/month = 8,000 yuan
Training cost: New employee training ~5,000 yuan/month
Loss cost: Returns due to misjudgment ~12,000 yuan/month
────────────────────────────────────
Total: 79,000 yuan/month

Now (AI + Manual)

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Labor cost: 2 people × 300 yuan/day × 30 days = 18,000 yuan
Management cost: QC supervisor 1 person × 8,000 yuan/month = 8,000 yuan
System cost: Cloud service 2,000 yuan/month (first 3 months free)
Maintenance cost: Tencent free maintenance = 0 yuan
Loss cost: Returns due to misjudgment ~3,000 yuan/month
────────────────────────────────────
Total: 31,000 yuan/month

Monthly savings: 48,000 yuan
Annual savings: 576,000 yuan

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