Augmented and Virtual reality in the manufacturing sector

XR creative is a Chennai based augmented and virtual reality enterprise that provides AR and VR solutions to large and medium sized industries. These solutions are provided virtually also to companies from across the world. Having worked with several leading companies and having provided some of the most unique and viable AR,VR solutions, XR creative is sure to provide your company also some of the best solutions that will cut down the time and money being spent on the manufacturing process and increase the efficiency at work.

Use cases of augmented reality in manufacturing sector

Lockheed Martin uses augmented reality to train their employees for assembling aircrafts. The workers are given augmented reality glass that uses cameras, depth sensors and motion sensors to overlay images onto the real working environment, engineers can see renderings of cables, bolts, parts, part numbers and instructions on how to assemble a particular component. This is said to have increased engineer’s accuracy up to 96%, while working 30% faster.
BMW uses augmented reality in logistics sector. It uses smart glasses to display picking information in the worker’s field of vision, while barcode scans enable interaction with the warehouse management system. This has resulted in 22% reduction in inventory identification time and a 33% reduction in errors over a typical eight hour shift.
Boeing implemented an HMD for assembly wire harnesses for commercial aircraft, which helped the company cut production time by 25% and lowered error rates to nearly zero while improving safety and enhancing the consistency of their SOPs.
IKEA uses AssembleAR app that utilizes the original diagrams in the paper instructions and overlays them with animation and life-size references to simplify the assembly process.
Nespresso enables users to scan their packaging and get step by step coffee machine descaling instructions.
Gabler uses VR for its manufacturing process. The company inspects production lines for any potential hazards/ dangers and ensures safety and quality.

India has a very large manufacturing sector that contributes to the GDP to a very large extent. Considering the size of the industry, there are a lot of challenges that are faced by the industry as well. Some of the common challenges faced by the manufacturing industry are:

Lack of skilled labor: With youngsters entering the industry, unskilled labor is on the rise. They are not as skilled as the laborers from the previous generations.
Heavy training costs: A lot of industries spend huge amounts of money, every year in training the new employees. This does not ensure the continued employment of the employee either. So, the company faces a loss when the employee gets trained and then quits the job. Because then, the company has to train a new employee from the scratch.
Keeping up with new technologies: Since manufacturing industries majorly depend on manual labor, they rarely invest in new technologies. Even if they do, the employees find it difficult to adapt themselves to these new technologies.
Maintenance of inventory: Maintaining inventories is a very time consuming process. It takes a lot of effort too. Till date most of the companies continue to record inventories on paper. This is a major drawback.
Lack of labor: People who are willing to work in the manufacturing sector have become very few in number. Since it is a tedious and physically challenging job, the youngsters prefer not to enter that line of job.

When there are problems, there are solutions too. Similarly, there are solutions even for the obstacles faced by manufacturing industry. The solutions are as follows:

The problem of having less number of skilled labor can be tackled with the help of technologies like Augmented reality wherein, any employee can learn even the most complex jobs without the help of a manual/ trainer just by using his/her mobile as the interface on which, live demo will be shown through drawings or virtual instructions which, the employee can follow easily.
The training costs can also be cut down because, no employee needs to spend time training another employee, in turn helping the senior employee be more productive with his/ her time.
Augmented reality and virtual reality are two of the most advanced yet, simple technologies to use. Hence, the employees wouldn’t find it difficult to adapt themselves to the new technology.
Maintenance of inventory is also easier when it is done virtually than on paper. With the introduction of Internet of things (IOT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) it makes things all the more easier.
Lack of labor can be tackled by introducing automation on the factory floors. With automation, a person is required only to oversee things. Hence, in place of ten people, it is more than enough if two people work. This would also save costs for the company.

What can XR Creative do for the manufacturing companies?

We call out to all the manufacturing agencies facing any sort of trouble to come to us. We will provide you cost effective and time saving AR,VR solutions that will definitely increase productivity at your workplace.