AR is a transformative technology that is revolutionizing the industrial sector.
From manufacturing and logistics to maintenance and training, AR has the potential to enhance productivity, efficiency, and safety in countless industrial applications. As this technology continues to evolve and become more accessible, it is essential to understand its capabilities, limitations, and implications for businesses.
This booklet aims to answer some of the most common questions about AR in an industrial context, providing a comprehensive guide for anyone interested in leveraging this technology to gain a competitive edge. So, let’s dive in and answer some of the most frequently asked questions
Enterprises can unlock a wealth of benefits and gain a competitive edge when exploring the potential of industrial AR solutions for their business operations, making them futureproof. With the ability to superimpose digital information onto the real world and thereby support and guide frontline workers, the applications of industrial AR solutions are various:
Industrial AR solutions realize their full potential in use cases that have a lot of complex and dynamic industrial, human-centered processes. Here, we find a lot of untapped potential regarding efficiency, accuracy, and safety that can be leveraged with AR. For example, intralogistics processes like manual order picking or sequencing become bulletproof when supported with AR vision picking. In factories, AR solutions guide workers through complex assembly processes, providing visual instructions that reduce errors and improve quality.
For inspection, AR enables technicians to identify issues more quickly and accurately, while integrated capabilities like taking pictures, or reporting comments enable documentation on the fly.
And beyond that, the technology also enables remote troubleshooting via the “You see what I see”-principle across use cases. Furthermore, training becomes more immersive, improving upskilling and onboarding motions.
If your process is human-centered and it is located along the industrial value chain, then the short answer is: Yes!
With its many use cases, AR solutions can be adapted across industries and across different departments to digitalize and streamline processes. Click on the company logos below to explore three core use cases in more depth.
When choosing an industrial AR solution, there are several functionalities and capabilities to look out for that will help to add immediate operational value. Here are some of the key considerations:
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Central management tool
A single location to manage devices, user accounts, and content is crucial to provide visibility and control of all operational activities
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Self-service workflow tools
Self-service workflow tools are essential for enabling non-technical users to create and publish AR content quickly and efficiently, reducing the need for specialized technical skills.
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Device agnostic approach
Compatibility with a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and smart glasses. It is important to ensure that the AR solution is accessible to a wide range of users and can be deployed on the devices of their choice.
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User-friendly interface
A user-friendly interface is critical for facilitating adoption and reducing the learning curve for the AR technology, helping to ensure that users can quickly and effectively leverage the new tools in daily operatio
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A trusted partner
Choosing a provider with extensive experience in the field will enable you to leverage solutions built on years of productive use and a proven ROI.
Ideally, no additional programming or knowledge should be required. To create workflows for AR wearables, self-service workflow authoring tools are easy to use. Even with no programming knowledge, everyone should be able to build workflows using simple drag & drop functionalities.
For more complex solutions, e.g. when an integration into an existing backend system or data base is needed, a dedicated solution delivery organization on the provider’s side is helpful. They accompany the project every step of the way, helping with scoping the use case, training key users, configuring the AR solution to your needs, and rolling the project out at large scale.
The flexibility of industrial AR solutions is its main characteristic, making it the perfect fit to support existing processes, rather than changing them. With no or minimal change, industrial AR solutions add direct value by streamlining existing procedures.
As AR solutions are highly configurable, they seamlessly adjust to existing structures. And: The high degree integrability of most industryready AR solutions is key when it comes to working with existing data, underlining the seamless integration into existing business operations.
The solutions to look out for should integrate three classes of devices. Firstly, smart glasses, which allow for fully handsfree processes, projecting the highest performance improvements. Other wearables like wrist computers, also allow for a sharp increase in ergonomics, while AR usage on tablets and smart phones enable the usage of legacy devices. Overall, flexibility is key when choosing the right hardware, as every use case and every company has specific requirements that need to be met.
Did you know?
Hidden champions: Smart glasses
Although devices such as tablets and mobile phones support AR technology, smart glasses are possibly the most integral part of incorporating industrial AR technology on the shopfloor due to their intuitive and ergonomic user experience. Smart glasses enable frontline workers to work fully hands-free and utilize all AR functions optimally as the information is displayed right in their field of view.
Choosing the perfect device
This guide will give you insights into four aspects that are relevant to help you choose the smart glasses model.
For global enterprises, technology that allows ease of communication and collaboration is important to create a truly connected workforce — especially when your workforce is not bound to one location but operates in different countries or regions. This results in diverse enterprise teams with various backgrounds and qualification levels.
Hence, the solutions to look out for should support wide arrays of languages and offer integrated translation options to ensure seamless connectivity and communication for frontline workers throughout their daily operation.
Companies across various industries have successfully integrated AR technology into their frontline workforce and achieve meaningful results. Examples range from digitalizing manufacturing processes, by using immersive technology to slash training times for quality assurance staff and boost end-of-line quality to increasing picking operations in intralogistics, or raising standards for the food industry, globally companies are using different AR solutions and benefit from them in everyday operation.
For example, NSF introduced AR solutions to a leading US-based QSR chain to support training for back and middle house activities with AR running on smart glasses, reducing training costs by 65% and increasing employee satisfaction by 83%.
Or Ford with their ‘See-what-I-see (SWIS)’ technical assistance via smart glasses offered by their Technical Assistance Center (TAC). The solution provides support to all Ford and Lincoln dealerships’ technicians to reach TAC specialist easily in real-time, reducing vehicle downtime and diagnostic time while increasing customer satisfaction.
The most important question:
I believe my company will benefit significantly from the AR technology, so where do I start?
You are ready to take advantage of industrial AR technology? By starting your shopfloor digitalization journey with an industry-proven platform like TeamViewer Frontline you make sure to receive a full end-to-end service with dedicated and experienced AR expert teams that will assist you throughout the scoping and roll-out of the project, the installation process all the way to technical after-sales support.
Let’s partner up and empower your frontline workforce.