A machine-vision system for monitoring a quality metric for a product, the system comprising: a controller connected to an image acquisition device over a first data network, wherein the controller and the image acquisition device are located at a production facility, and wherein the controller is configured to: receive a digital image from the image acquisition device over the first data network, wherein the digital image represents at least a portion of the product; analyze the digital image using a first machine-vision algorithm to compute a measurement of the product; and transmit the digital image and the measurement over a second data network; a vision server connected to the controller over the second data network, wherein the vision server is located external to the production facility, and wherein the vision server is configured to: receive the digital image and the measurement from the controller over the second data network; compute the quality metric based on statistical processing of an aggregation of the received measurement and previously computed measurements of other previously captured images and defect correlation to a recorded factor; and store the digital image and the measurement in a database storage; and a remote terminal connected to the vision server over the second data network, wherein the remote terminal is configured to: receive the digital image and the quality metric from the vision server over the second data network; and display the digital image and the quality metric on the remote terminal. a controller connected to an image acquisition device over a first data network, wherein the controller and the image acquisition device are located at a production facility, and wherein the controller is configured to: receive a digital image from the image acquisition device over the first data network, wherein the digital image represents at least a portion of the product; analyze the digital image using a first machine-vision algorithm to compute a measurement of the product; and transmit the digital image and the measurement over a second data network; receive a digital image from the image acquisition device over the first data network, wherein the digital image represents at least a portion of the product; analyze the digital image using a first machine-vision algorithm to compute a measurement of the product; and transmit the digital image and the measurement over a second data network; a vision server connected to the controller over the second data network, wherein the vision server is located external to the production facility, and wherein the vision server is configured to: receive the digital image and the measurement from the controller over the second data network; compute the quality metric based on statistical processing of an aggregation of the received measurement and previously computed measurements of other previously captured images and defect correlation to a recorded factor; and store the digital image and the measurement in a database storage; and receive the digital image and the measurement from the controller over the second data network; compute the quality metric based on statistical processing of an aggregation of the received measurement and previously computed measurements of other previously captured images and defect correlation to a recorded factor; and store the digital image and the measurement in a database storage; and a remote terminal connected to the vision server over the second data network, wherein the remote terminal is configured to: receive the digital image and the quality metric from the vision server over the second data network; and display the digital image and the quality metric on the remote terminal. receive the digital image and the quality metric from the vision server over the second data network; and display the digital image and the quality metric on the remote terminal. <EOS>