The goal of this thesis project is to describe how the use of industrial vision systems can improve the productive and commercial results of a company producing internal combustion engines for automotive application. The study has been conducted in an automotive powertrain plant, belonging to an important car manufacturing group operating worldwide. With the support of the production engineering office it was possible to follow the activity of the various optical systems present along the machining and assembly lines of the plant, being on the field. The introductive part of this dissertation focuses on a general overview of the industrial vision field, pointing out its main advantages and illustrating its leading applications.