- There are no pre-existing assets to create step-by-step instructions
- Work and training instructions are either non-existent or poor quality
- Relevant CAD data or documented procedures are unavailable
- There are highly-regulated standards for safety and compliance
There are many benefits of AR (Augmented Reality or Assisted Reality) and digital work instructions, but the idea of digital transformation can seem overwhelming. This article talks about why many organizations are starting to consider digital work instructions, and the benefits augmented reality (AR) can bring.
As organizations begin to deploy applications at scale, they often realize that AR presents both opportunities and challenges. Creating compelling AR experiences for an enterprise has historically been difficult, limiting the reach of how much and what can be deployed.
Despite the occasional challenges, organizations continue to explore the new possibilities and value AR can bring to service, operations, engineering, and manufacturing.
For starters, if you’ve made a heavy investment in technical publications or technical documentation, odds are you have a lot of content in a multitude of systems and formats such as Arbortext, DITA, or even S1000D. This has most likely occurred over a long period of time and leveraged a lot of resources.
With all the resources, time, and energy put into your technical publications the idea of ‘going digital’ or moving towards ‘digital work instructions’ can be daunting.
So why is there currently so much ‘hype’ about pairing Augmented Reality with service or manufacturing, and what benefits can it bring to your organization?
Well… there are a lot of reasons for taking on digital work instructions, or even hands-free work instructions, that can be projected by a head-mounted tablet, a headset, or even an iPad or cellular device. And quite frankly, there are a lot of practical applications throughout an enterprise that can benefit from up to date content delivery and process/quality control.
Augmented Reality relates to the new workforce
If you look at manufacturing plants, assembly facilities, and at the service world as a whole – these groups of people are aging. This means that the manufacturing skills gap is widening.
In fact, there’s quite a bit of turnover happening which is starting to make it difficult for organizations to find competent, qualified replacements.
Studies show that over the next decade, due to economic expansion and the surge in baby boomer retirement, nearly 3.5 million industrial jobs will be needed, and 2 million are expected to go unfilled.
For instance, if you look at an aircraft assembly worker today, most are going to be older guys and gals. They’re used to doing things with physical resources (such as paper for example).
But if you’re looking to replace one of these retiring workers, your replacement is most likely going to be someone used to consuming his or her information through technology devices like iPads or mobile phones. A bonus, however, is that these individuals are more likely to be very open to new technology such as a head-mounted tablet.
The fact is, in most cases, we are talking about entirely different generations of our workforce. The way they consume, process, and work with new information will be entirely different than veteran-ed workers.
It is in your best interest to get these new-aged workers up to speed as quickly as possible. An excellent way to do that is to use delivery methods familiar to younger generations.
This is one of the many reasons companies have begun to explore augmented reality (AR).
Best-in-class organizations realize the benefit of investing in ways to get new workers up to speed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
AR for field service
Many organizations see “field service” as an excellent starting point to implement AR. There are a lot of time savings for service personnel when you go from paper to digital. This is why companies across the board have made the decision to go into a paperless environment.
The upside of AR is readily apparent when inspecting how someone attempts to execute specific detailed tasks on a shop floor. This almost always involves going back to paper instructions which in turn, takes time and wastes a whole lot of resources; hunting for documentation, going to-and-from workstations to document cabinets, etc. This compounds as workers switch tasks.
Augmented Reality provides cross reference materials
By simply enabling a workforce to digitally access resources, an organization can save time, proactively improve processes, and more effectively manage quality.
Augmented Reality allows workers to very quickly and efficiently cross-reference material and pull up related images, user guides, bulletins, and other content. All without leaving a workstation or job site.
For example, if a service technician was to get lost while using a paper instruction manual and he or she didn’t know the next step, AR provides a solution.
With an augmented experience the service technician can link directly back to technical information to read further into a problem that perhaps wasn’t included on the paper instruction manual or was somewhere else.
AR helps track detailed project status
Because AR is simply a delivery mechanism, it can be configured to interact with multiple databases and content sources. Project and task authentication and sign-off requirements can be delivered to workers through their devices but managed digitally at the edge or within discrete systems.
This means there’s a detailed digital trail of the work that’s been done and being done by each individual service technician.
Therefore, if a service task were to get interrupted, someone else on the team could pick up where the previous technician left off – knowing that the all the steps in the work instructions have been completed and signed off by the last worker.
Process and quality control benefits of AR
Some AR solutions even provide the added benefit of recording the time taken to complete a specific step or entire task. It provides insight into possible areas for training or process optimization.
In other words, it can help an organization notice discrepancies between expectations and execution – ‘as written’ and ‘as executed.’
You open the door to many closed-loop quality control improvements when you have insight into, and a digital signature on every completed task.
Hands-free work environment
Both head-mounted tablets and phones can be operated in a hands-free environment.
Handheld devices scan activated QR codes to read instructions. This allows operators to maneuver hands-free while the instructions are being read to them.
By using a head-mounted template environment, you can verbally communicate with the instructions on the head-mounted tablet without ever having to look away from work, or wake up a tablet or phone.
The return on investment for AR
The upfront costs are often the most expensive part of this piece of this digital transformation journey. Whether implementing a full-scale enterprise deployment or a proof-of-concept, you’ll often need to lay the same foundation of supporting technology. But it is worth it.
Talk with us if you’d like help figuring out a ballpark investment to get AR going at your company.
The ROI is tangible and real. For instance, AR solutions can easily save a $60,000 fully loaded resource 8 to 12 minutes a day by replacing paper and disjointed processes. That turns into four hours a month, forty-eight hours a year. That’s more than $1,300 per year in savings for every worker. The ROI quickly goes up proportional to the number of users added to the system.
Conclusion
I’ve made my case. But it doesn’t change the challenge I brought up at the beginning of this article. Moving, converting, and re-authoring legacy technical documentation is daunting…
Or is it?
We have a solution. It’s called AR Instruct™. Watch the video below to get an idea of what it is and how it could help you.
AR Instruct™ is an application that takes an existing product, assembly, service, and other technical information (in formats like DITA, XML, Arbortext, S100D, etc.) and dynamically transitions it to be displayed in a digital work environment. We aren’t talking about publishing a PDF on an iPad either.
AR Instruct™ publishes fully interactive experiences complete with voice commands, step management, graphic viewers and all.
You should do two things after reading this article – 1) Request a demonstration and 2) Forward this on to the people in your organization responsible for publishing and managing work and service instructions.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Assisted Reality for digital work instructions have become a growth driver, or at least consideration, for many industries.
Yet moving everything from paper or ‘digital hard-copy’ to digital AR experiences seems to be a daunting task for large and small organizations alike.
The truth is, there are many ways to incorporate augmented reality into service, but many of these can disrupt current processes and be a challenge to implement.
This is why, our company (EAC Product Development Solutions), developed and created an easier way to make service information more accurate, relevant and accessible.
It allows you to easily deliver the content behind AR instructions, manuals, and guides to digital devices such as tablets, head-mounted displays, or cell phones.
Implementing AR for service should be easy. That is why we created a better way.
The tool is called AR Instruct – It easily connects traditional technical publication content to the AR world.
Digital Work Instructions & AR Instruct
AR Instruct enables “hands-free” execution of work instructions using the latest immersive technology including: Augmented Reality, Assisted Reality, and Mixed Reality.
Our AR solution works as an AR publishing engine that repurposes existing S1000D, Arbortext, or XML, technical publication content and simplifies the transition to hands-free and mobile paperless instructions.
The best part? AR Instruct requires no content re-authoring and no content rebuilding. It’s really that easy.
AR Instruct can even dynamically publish up-to-date work instructions from the latest document revision on your server. This will ensure accuracy, compliance, and quality.
Watch the video below to get a quick and easy introduction to AR Instruct.
How does AR Instruct work?
A Service Engineer scans a work order QR code to locate relevant service procedures.
Our AR publishing engine, AR Instruct, retrieves XML content and dynamically formats it for AR viewing. This requires no manual publishing at all.
Using a digital device like a Vuzix or RealWear, the service engineer can navigate the AR content hands-free with voice commands.
The Service Engineer can inspect each associated technical graphic related to the product.
The Service Engineer can also expand any technical graphic or content for enhanced viewing.
With the AR Instruct graphic viewer, the Service Engineer can pan and zoom any image by using voice commands. All buttons he or she sees are “readable” as voice commands.
Using voice commands, the Service Engineer can navigate links to cross-referenced steps or procedures.
Once the Service Engineer is done with the cross-referenced content, he or she would be able to return to where they left off in the original service procedure.
When all steps are complete, the AR Instruct software notifies the Service Engineer that the procedure is done and all steps are recorded as complete.
The Service Engineer exits back to the bar code scanner to begin a new work order or procedure.
It’s really that easy.
If you are looking to improve operational efficiency, appeal to the modern workforce, execute service checklists 3-5% faster and enable greater compliance and quality assurance over completed work instructions, AR Instruct is exactly what you need.
Want to see AR Instruct for yourself? Request a Demo today.
PTC is expanding its Augmented Reality (AR) solutions with another powerful Vuforia product – Vuforia Expert Capture. The technology allows an expert or skilled worker to ‘capture’, or record, their manual procedures on the manufacturing floor to then deliver the recorded step-by-step instructions to new hires or other employees to perform that same procedure.
Vuforia Expert Capture empowers front-line workers with the confidence to do their jobs with increased productivity and improved efficiency with easily viewable procedures by using a hands-free, AR-enabled, wearable headset, such as the Microsoft Hololens or RealWear HMT-1.
How does Vuforia Expert Capture work?
Vuforia Expert Capture uses three different AR-enabled technologies to create location-specific AR guidance including Vuforia Capture, Vuforia Editor, and Vuforia View.
Vuforia Capture: An expert uses the Hololens or RealWear to record the procedure with the Vuforia Capture software downloaded into the wearable device.
Vuforia Editor: A content creator uses Vuforia Editor, an editing software, to edit, modify, or add to the captured procedure and then publishes it.
Vuforia View: A new hire or other employee uses a Hololens, RealWear, mobile phone, or tablet device with the downloaded Vuforia View software to then perform the captured procedure.
The skilled worker, or subject-matter-expert (SME), can use voice or gesture-controlled commands to take photos or add bookmarks during the recorded procedure. The bookmarks would then allow the editor to focus in on highlighted parts of the procedure and add additional content such as a still image, a 3D CAD file, or links to other resources available through the organization’s existing content.
Who benefits from using captured AR experiences?
Your organization can benefit the most in manufacturing, service, and training uses cases where:
The knowledge from SMEs can be captured instantly without causing too much disruption from daily work activities while reducing the need for rigorous training for other workers.
PTC’s customer, Global Foundries, a global full-service semiconductor manufacturing company, has found success with the implementation of using Vuforia Expert Capture:
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Michael Campbell, EVP of AR products at PTC, says in a press release, “We are excited to offer industrial enterprises a new way to use AR to leverage the tribal knowledge of SMEs and help alleviate the skills gap crisis threatening today’s industrial enterprise. Vuforia Expert Capture is a high-value, out-of-the-box solution that accelerates AR content creation that enables manufacturers to not only improve the accuracy and speed at which workers successfully complete new or unfamiliar tasks, but also to reduce training costs and time to productivity.”
Campbell, in a recent webcast that introduced the new product release, says that PTC is working on allowing users to use Vuforia Chalk, Vuforia Studio, and Vuforia Expert Capture in sync with one another. This would allow content creators to embed 3D CAD files into the procedures while editing captured processes in Vuforia Editor or it would allow employees new to procedures to essentially ‘dial-in’ to a remote expert with Vuforia Chalk to then ‘talk’ him through the procedure while seeing assisted chalk overlays onto real-world equipment.
You can start implementing AR in your organization with Vuforia Expert Capture to rapidly capture high-value procedures from the expert’s point-of-view. Contact us to talk to an AR expert: you can request more information or ask for a live demo with your team on-site.
Check out our Augmented Reality Gallery for more real-world use cases for Industrial AR.
Download our product brief on Vuforia Expert Capture to learn more about PTC’s AR product.
The aging workforce crisis is affecting field service companies in a huge way. Kris Oldland, a B2B author, wrote an article for Field Service News called The Aging Workforce Crisis Is Not Only Real But It’s Here – How Are We Going To Resolve It?. Oldland’s research found that 53% of field service companies believe that replacing an aging workforce is a challenge for their organization.
Here’s how we should be addressing the aging workforce – by protecting older generations.
Protecting older generations
According to a report written by the United States Senate on ‘America’s Aging Workforce’, challenges such as age discrimination, inadequate training opportunities, and working while managing health conditions and disabilities are making it difficult for older workers to thrive in the workplace. Not everyone is ready for retirement – whether it’s due to financial reasons or they’re just not ready to stop working. It is projected that by 2026, working individuals that are 55 and older will make up 24.8 percent of working Americans – which will account for almost one in every four American workers (United States Senate, America’s Aging Workforce).
So how can field service companies help protect older generations from losing their jobs due to these challenges? We don’t need to ‘replace’ the aging workforce – we can still leverage their vast amount of knowledge and experience. Service organizations should be leading the way by providing solutions for older generations to continue working by eliminating or at least significantly decreasing travel time and cost it takes to service equipment on-site.
How do you do this? Provide your employees with an augmented reality (AR) tool such as Vuforia Chalk.
What is PTC Vuforia Chalk?
PTC’s Vuforia Chalk is built on the Vuforia AR platform technology from PTC. You can draw digital annotations on your device that accurately anchor to physical objects in the real world so that the receiver of your communication through the app knows exactly how to solve the problem via your instructions.
Vuforia Chalk allows field service technicians to help customers without having to travel to get to them. Chalk is an app that empowers service technicians by providing them with instructions and guidance they need to quickly solve technical challenges. Both experts and technicians can accurately mark up live views to highlight details or guide multi-step solutions.
Chalk marks where you instruct on the screen, leaving ‘still’ marks where you’ve placed them, even if you’re moving your device around. You can move your device out of view, and your chalk marks will still be seen drawn where you put them.
AR is one of the fastest growing segments in the market, allowing Chalk to easily launch as an app that service companies are immediately attracted to. Organizations are seeing that the investment draws in new levels of workforce productivity and efficiency for those that can work remotely and cost-effectiveness for less money spent on travel.
How can AR help with remote assistance?
Older generations are easily able to learn PTC’s Vuforia augmented reality tools as something that can be incorporated into their service processes.
Our recent webinar called, Vuforia Chalk: Powerful Remote Guidance at your Fingertips, gathered valuable survey information from our attendees: 50% of our respondents told us that their service technicians on average travel 50-100 miles radius from where they work to get to service calls, and the other 50% of respondents told us that they travel more than 100 miles to service their customers.
Think of the costs incurred with that kind of travel. The back and forth communication, the talk with human resources to plan the trip; the expenses of a rental car and/or plane tickets; the time lost to work due to travel; et cetera. The list goes on and on. When, in reality, you can use a simple AR app remote assistance app such as Vuforia Chalk to problem-solve from the comfort of your own office or home.. or anywhere for that matter.
When we asked our webinar attendees if ‘the availability of an office-based remote-expert role would increase the retention of retiring technicians and their knowledge’ – Fifty percent said ‘Yes’, and the other fifty percent said ‘Maybe’. Become a leader in the field service industry and offer your aging workforce the chance to work remotely. After all, there’s a one in four chance that the aging worker could be your grandparent.
Download the free trial of PTC Vuforia Chalk today, to see if this could be a tool that could keep older generations from feeling any repercussions of the aging workforce. Contact us if you’re interested in Vuforia Chalk.
It’s no wonder people like you are researching ways to reduce downtime. A 2016 ITIC survey found 98% of organizations said a single hour of downtime cost over $100,000. 81% of respondents said an hour of downtime cost their organization over $300,000!
Remote monitoring, remote diagnostics, and predictive analytics are helping organizations reduce downtime. They’re transforming the way companies manage and service their manufacturing operations. As Gary Wollenhaupt calls out in his article about how IoT Slashes Downtime with Predictive Maintenance; manufacturing machinery and other assets can now be connected to the industrial internet of things. Predictive maintenance will begin to replace scheduled maintenance based on mileage, time, usage, or other predictive measures.
We now have the ability to digitally peer into the inner workings of an asset to understand performance, tolerance, temperature, or any number of other factors that can be measured using sensors and device networks. When harnessed, this data is the is the answer to the question being asked by many organizations – “How do I reduce downtime and increase productivity?”
There are many tools on the market to collect the data streaming from sensors and turn it into useful information. We recommend PTC’s suite of industrial connectivity / Industrie 4.0 solutions. We’re not alone. Forrester Researched named PTC and IoT Software Platform Leader and PTC’s ThingWorx was named a leader in “IDC MarketScape: Worldwide IoT Platforms (Software Vendors) 2017 Vendor Assessment.” PTC’s integrated solution suite includes ThingWorx, Vuforia, Kepware, and others.
Our team of solution architects and technical experts can help define and implement the solution(s) you need. We want to help you begin remotely monitoring your assets, whether manufacturing or remotely deployed (products), and leverage predictive analytics to reduce downtime and save money. It may involve a custom solution set, or it could simply be PTC’s eacy-to-deply Manufacturing Apps.
EAC is here to take on as much or as little of your project as necessary. We can simply provide the software for your own team to implement. Or we can manage the entire process from installation, to implementation, to integration and front-end development.
Please contact us. We want to help you leverage technology to reduce downtime and improve your bottom line.
Here is a better description of the solutions mentioned above:
The ThingWorx platform includes compatible modules that deliver the functionality, flexibility, and agility enterprises need to implement industrial IoT apps and AR Experiences. This includes industrial connectivity, analytics, and application enablement. ThingWorx is unrivaled in its ability to help companies quickly connect data streams and publish dashboards or mashups.
Kepware is a single solution for collecting, aggregating, and providing secure access to industrial operations data. The ThingWorx Native Interface integrates the Kepware KEPServerEX with ThingWorx easily and securely. This integration lets organizations take data streams from almost any manufacturing asset and present it in a useable format. The Kepware family also offers a predictive analytics engine in addition to other Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Data Tunneling solutions.
Vuforia is PTC’s solution for creating rich augmented reality experiences for applications such as work instructions, user training / manuals, asset monitoring, and service instructions. It lets users leverage the richness of 3D and insights from IoT to deliver compelling augmented reality experiences the help improve efficiencies, build better products and enable safer, more productive workers.
It’s finally here, the next big thing-Augmented Reality (AR) AR is finally moving from ‘a neat idea’ to ‘a necessary tool.’
Like any new technology, AR has gone through its awkward teenage years; clumsy, hasn’t grown into its ears, and doesn’t quite know what it wants to do with its life. It’s no different than the likes of portable computing, the smart phone, or any other modern technological marvel. (here’s a hilarious slide show of the early life of portable computing from itworld.com)
AR is finally coming into focus for many companies. People in various roles are starting to see how AR can reduce human errors, simplify the transfer of information, and provide insight to end users and managers alike. And I’m not even going to get into the endless possibilities involving customer engagement and experience. When a technology moves from video games and parlor tricks into serious applications like technical publications, assembly instructions, maintenance and support, and plant operations…it’s arrived.
Computing power and hardware has all but caught up to the demands of AR applications. Your company should either have, or be working on a strategy to take advantage of AR. If you don’t believe me, then maybe you’ll believe the Harvard Business Review. EAC Product Development Solutions is here to support your adoption of Augmented Reality and other Internet of Things (IoT) smart connected operations and product applications. Whether you’re getting a plan together, trying to obtain buy-in from the rest of your organization, selecting the right software platform, implementing a solution, or developing ‘experiences’ (that’s what AR and IoT applications are typically called); we’re here. We have teams of experts to make sure you successfully transform the way you design, manufacture, connect to, and service your products and organization.
As the leading PTC North American partner we offer our customers all of PTC’s technology solutions: ThingWorx, Windchill, Creo, Arbortext, Vuforia, Mathcad, etc. We also have a deep knowledge of the tools, applications, and configurations. This allows us to provide first-class consulting, implementation, and support services to ensure people like you are successful. Give us a call.
