AUGMENTED REALITY
FOR A REAL INDUSTRIAL WORLD
I
ndustry today faces huge challenges. Even more than in consumer and high-tech fields, the skills gap created by the retirement of older industry experts, along with complex and time-consuming hiring challenges, means that having enough trained and informed people to get the job done is a daily problem. At the same time, the pressure to increase or at least maintain profitability and viability doesn’t decrease, although budgets may. The critical nature of operations makes industry risk averse and slow to change, and every expenditure has to justify itself many times over. Still, the only way to balance the lack of expert personnel and the need for profitability is an increase in productivity and a decrease in downtime that can only be achieved through technology. But, by definition, that technology has to solve problems and pay for itself from day one. Unexpectedly enough, that’s where augmented reality comes in. Today, industry professionals are realising that a technology that once only existed in gaming is the most practical, highest ROI tool that they can consider.
14 PROCESS TECHNOLOGY - NOVEMBER 2022
Augmented reality in the industrial world Huge amounts of data are collected through hundreds or thousands of sensors on every plant floor, but how can that data get into the hands of people on the plant floor who need it, and how can it be interpreted so that personnel can use it? New staff line up at workstations to check instructions, manuals and diagrams, and at any given time, only one or two experts on any procedure may be in the plant. Training new workers is a critical process that requires time and effort and the right expertise and tools. Maintenance personnel constantly face machines they can’t evaluate and data that is trapped behind gates and in inaccessible locations. AR tools can help close the knowledge gap, connecting less experienced personnel to tools and experienced mentors while they work — rapidly upskilling a new generation of operators and technicians and ultimately enhancing productivity and the bottom line. Many a large plant has hundreds of disparate assets and a maintenance team, many of whom are new and not yet fully trained to recognise and fix problems with each of these assets. The main-
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