This white paper explores the limitations of existing approaches to quality assessment within industry, and details how opto-digital technology can be used as a more efficient alternative. To outline how any type of product consisting of moving parts depends on a diverse set of specifications, we use the theoretical example of the humble miniature music box. This brings together many different tasks commonly used for quality assessments within industry, and we use it to illustrate where specific benefits are afforded by new opto-digital technologies. The hearing aid medical device provides a second example of this, in the context of a real life technical application. These two examples show how, when complemented by traditional approaches, opto-digital technology can improve the success of quality assessment tasks within almost any manufacturing environment.