Today, augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies go beyond the gaming world. They are becoming more common in various industries, in particular in the manufacturing industry. In an era in which data plays a huge role, and everything is changing very quickly, and professionals have to constantly learn new skills, these evolving technologies can significantly change the manufacturing industry as we know it today.
What exactly is AR? It is a technology that allows you to see a product in its relative environment. It is superimposed on a computer-generated image in a person's view of the real world, giving an extended version of reality. On the other hand, when it comes to VR, you can put on a VR headset and immerse yourself in a completely virtual world and interact with objects in this virtual world as it happens in the real world.
AR / VR enables the next generation of workers to be smarter, smarter, faster and more accurate. This new wave of immersive technologies gives them instant access to technical knowledge and data, makes it possible to interact with 3D models, collaborate with colleagues to a new level, and immerse themselves in a digital environment that qualitatively improves interaction and training of specialists. By helping employees do more and be more productive, AR / VR technologies enable the enterprise to solve all sorts of problems, sometimes in unexpected and innovative ways.
Today, as the manufacturing industry prepares to adapt to new challenges and opportunities, AR / VR can provide a good foundation for it.
New production reality
The United States now employs 11.5 million people in manufacturing , 8.8% of the workforce, and the number continues to grow. Globally, the manufacturing sector is projected to have a shortage of 7.9 million workers by 2030, resulting in an unrealized economic benefit of $ 607.1 billion if current initiatives remain unchanged.
According to Korn Ferry's Future of Work study, “developing countries with strong industrial centers may start to compete because of significant manufacturing talent shortages. Brazil is projected to need 1.7 million manufacturing workers by 2030, while Indonesia has a workforce shortage of 1.6 million. The United States is already grappling with a shortage of highly skilled manufacturing workforce, and this shortage is expected to widen significantly over the next decade, reaching 383,000 by 2030, the equivalent of over 10% of the highly skilled workforce. ”
As a result, in an effort to eliminate the shortage of skilled workers, the manufacturing industry, which has traditionally developed rather slowly, is rapidly moving towards the integration of AR / VR technologies. IDC forecasts global AR / VR spending to reach $ 160 billion by 2023, well above the $ 16.8 billion forecast for 2019, and the cumulative annual growth in AR / VR spending could reach 78 over a five-year period. 3%. The commercial use cases for these technologies, which are expected to receive the largest investments in 2023, include training ($ 8.5 billion) and maintenance ($ 4.3 billion).
AR / VR use cases such as site assembly and security will grow at a faster pace than AR gaming (IDC).
With an increase in the number of enterprises using AR / VR technologies for various use cases, the AR / R market is expected to grow, we are confident in IDC. These technologies will play a critical role in expanding human resources. Ongoing advances in hardware and software - initiatives and efforts by tech giants such as Google (ARCore), Apple (ARKit 3), and Microsoft (HoloLens) - will unlock more opportunities and push widespread AR / VR adoption.
Hardware will account for over half of all AR / VR spending. The fastest growing system integration costs (94.8% pa) will outpace consulting and application development, while software spending will grow 70% annually, IDC predicts .
Strong growth in spending on AR hardware, software and services (135.5% per year) will lead to a significant outstripping total AR spending on VR by the end of the forecast period (until 2023).
Increased use of AR / VR by enterprises will be a direct result of increased production volumes as companies adopt new technologies to improve productivity, safety and achieve high accuracy.
Practical training
According to Deloitte, the number of new jobs in the manufacturing industry is expected to increase by 1.96 million by 2028 . This requires the industry to keep up with the demand for new talent, quickly adapt and integrate new technologies in order to increase both income and productivity.
Technicians must be able to quickly adapt to this environment and identify potential efficiency gains in all of their operations. One of the ways is precisely the use of new technologies that make it possible to improve the methods of training employees.
In most production environments, hands-on training is difficult because it is unrealistic to shut down equipment or production line to instruct new employees. In addition, there are types of equipment that would be too wasteful to purchase solely for training specialists.
Meanwhile, with the help of VR, it is quite possible to conduct training on the spot: new employees find themselves in a virtual environment. This environment mimics the work they would do in their workplaces. The ability to learn from real life examples leads to an increased retention of knowledge and provides an opportunity to practice complex scenarios that learners usually do not have access to in traditional learning environments.
The technology also enables employees to perceive information through applications in real time, save time on traditional forms of learning, and gives them the experience they need to fill gaps. Companies also benefit because virtual learning prevents disruption to normal work processes and production cycles.
In the next few months, there may be an urgent need for advanced training using AR / VR. According to the International Labor Organization, 21 million employers worldwide are among the worst hit companies from the economic crisis caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The factories are now resuming and ramping up production after a sudden and prolonged closure at the beginning of the year. Probably, millions of workers and employees will return to their jobs. This will happen at a faster pace than at any time in history and will require accelerated retraining or retraining as new manufacturing processes and procedures are introduced.
Companies can combine classroom and on-the-job training in a virtual environment where users learn about the product / equipment and can immediately experience hands-on training on virtual 3D models. Repetition will become an important practice for fluency in work tasks.
Safety and maintenance
The ability to train employees remotely takes the process to a new level, saves employers' money in the long term and, most importantly, provides a safer environment. Despite the availability of guidelines and training courses, employees should use other resources to effectively prepare for the various high-risk situations they may face during their careers. Thanks to AR technology, they can iterate through potentially hazardous scenarios, helping to avoid work-related injuries and equipment damage.
For example, aerospace manufacturers are using AR technology to improve efficiency and improve quality control at their installation and inspection sites. Employees use augmented reality glasses to view digital mockups over images of real systems to find faulty parts. This helps ensure safety and speeds up the maintenance process. AR helps to achieve high accuracy and also speeds up the daily inspection and control processes.
Assembly line technicians tend to make mistakes in complex assemblies, and the cost of re-assembling a product is sometimes very high. AR will help you collect the product with 100% accuracy. With its help, companies can greatly simplify the service process. In real time, users will step through the process of repairing the car, apply digital simulation to fix the problem.
Labor productivity and business efficiency
The practice-oriented adaptation and learning process results in a better and faster preparation of professionals for their daily tasks, which leads to increased productivity. In addition to training, AR / VR solutions help businesses be smarter and more efficient. For example, manufacturing executives can use VR to upgrade their employees' skills to gain new skills, or AR solutions can give engineers access to interactive 3D visualization to assemble certain components more quickly.
For years, these technologies have evolved to help businesses become even more efficient. For example, to accommodate the growing mobility and manufacturability of the workforce, these solutions are now presented asglasses and helmets that can be used to deploy both simple and complex AR installations for enterprises. The result is less error rates, faster deployment times and lower costs. In addition, direct supervisors can give specific instructions to subordinates to do their job better. By using VR to teach you at every stage of the process, from initial design to assembly optimization, you can dramatically increase productivity and productivity.
Whenever we buy a certain product, we want to try it out. With AR and VR, you can see how the products fit into the customer's environment, their external and internal work. By combining AR / VR with gamification and game design, users can work better in simulated environments, remember better, and complete tasks better.
Looking to the future
Existing AR / VR platforms offer a proven, scalable and streamlined path from proof-of-concept to enterprise AR / VR deployment. In particular, it empowers employees to reduce repair time, streamline workflows, improve training, eliminate errors, and more.
ThinkReality is a scalable cloud-based and software-independent AR / VR platform supported by Lenovo. ThinkReality systems are designed to create, deploy and manage enterprise virtual / augmented reality solutions.
Although AR / VR technologies still face obstacles to their integration into the industry, they will play an important role in the development of the industry in the coming years. Ensuring the right training, productivity, and employee safety is just the starting point for a promising future for AR / VR in the manufacturing industry. As they make plans for the future, businesses continue to see the value and vastness of AR / VR in improving operations. By introducing smarter technologies into the corporate ecosystem, enterprises will transform, transform the manufacturing industry, which we are seeing today.