The hard reality is that the ongoing skills gap, labor shortage and high employee turnover aren’t going away. How can manufacturers deal with this reality?
Through augmented and virtual reality.
As David Chen, co-founder and CTO of 3D vision technologies provider Orbbec, maintains in the latest Industry Today article, AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) are “finding their way into applications from the factory floor to the training room, overcoming an increasing number of difficult manufacturing hurdles.”
According to Chen, AV/VR applications are particularly well suited to training, quality and safety inspection, and product and assembly. He offers as examples how LightGuide, a Michigan AR solutions company, delivers efficiencies to factory work:
“In one application, LightGuide’s AR empowers teams of workers to inspect and assemble automotive headliners using diagrams projected onto headliner blanks. Glue paths, harness routes, and adhesive tape placements are guided by projection, while 3D sensors confirm placement of each item. LightGuide has improved over 1,000 such processes, many with real-time analytics and digital traceability, for some of the world’s largest manufacturers.”
Chen argues not only that AR/VR applications are affordable and cost-effective, but that, “It won’t be long before augmented and virtual solutions are common sights throughout manufacturing, solving staffing and production challenges that are very, very real indeed.”
You can read the entire article, 3 Ways AR/VR Can Improve Manufacturing Processes, here.
Is your company currently employing AR or VR in any of your manufacturing processes? We’re interested in your experiences and thoughts. See the Industry Today editorial guidelines.
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Tags: AR/VR, labor shortage, skills gap, Susan Poeton, #SusanPoeton, #SuePoeton, Sue Poeton, Industry Today
Susan Poeton 