Gene Feldman, Emma Valdez, and Randy Nunez speak on a recent VRARA whitepaper on XR’s presence in manufacturing spaces
XR has already reached many end users and workplace situations. While the era of widespread consumer adoption of XR into everyday life is still some way away, major businesses are already profoundly leveraging the technology.
Among those key enterprise sectors is manufacturing. There are many moving parts behind a successful manufacturing firm, from the design team to frontline workers on a factory floor; in both areas, XR is becoming a strong tool.
For example, in design review situations, VR allows teams to collaborate over immersive digital twins of an existing or upcoming product, which allows for many positive outcomes. One is saving resources by avoiding the need for physical renditions during a design preview, and another is saving capital required for flying decision-makers or products to a location to review a product-instead VR allows high-level executives to see the product virtually and remotely.
On the factory floor, XR solutions like immersive training and remote guidance provide crucial insights for workers operating highly expensive machinery in, at times, dangerous environments.
The benefits are already countless, and the benefits are growing. Keeping track of this can sometimes seem overwhelming, especially for professionals and decision-makers working daily in busy industries like manufacturing.
Luckily, groups like the VRAR Association are helping businesses understand the growing enterprise XR space. Most recently, the VRARA released a whitepaper highlighting how XR solutions assist modern manufacturing firms in optimising training, efficiency, and safety procedures.
Recently, XR Today spoke with some of the participating industry experts who contributed to the VRARA whitepaper to uncover some of the key trends behind adopting XR solutions in manufacturing.
Applying XR to Manufacturing Sectors
Gene Feldman, Training Manager at Nestle Preena, Pet Care North America, leverages XR to support sales functional roles for its North America pet care division, whereby Feldman has been leading a VR project for the “past seven and a half years.”
With Nestle Preena, Feldman and his team test various XR concepts and pilots to enhance procedures for getting the company’s consumer goods onto store shelves. Feldman notes that following some trial projects, his team has gone live with a “couple of solutions, utilizing VR technology, metaverse, and spatial computing, whatever keyword we want to use for that; trying to find solutions that can apply to enterprise consumer product companies.”
Feldman noted:
One of our big use cases is being able to render any of our pet food aisles in the virtual space before we actually do it in real life, and it gives us all of our sales data. So we’ve cut our teeth on non factory solutions. Now that the headsets and the technology are becoming more safety-regulated to meet OSHA guidelines, they can start getting on the factory floor. I do think manufacturing is becoming much more open to it as the technology becomes available.
On the other hand, VRARA Whitepaper contributor Emma Valdez is an Associate Counsel at Knollwood Investment Advisory, a lawyer by trade who also works for a crossover investment firm: “Specifically in our venture capital portfolio, I am on our associate council; I’ve spent a lot of time working on our technology portfolio, a lot of the diligence running processes and working with founders.”
“We have a lot of enterprise clients. I see what individuals are building, we advise, and we work alongside founders to see the needs in the use cases,” Valdez added.
Additionally, Randy Nunez, Managing Principal for Nunez Consulting, LLC, previously led a small innovation team for Ford Motor Company that investigated XR technologies. He also lent his well-respected expertise to the roundtable.
Speaking on the current state of enterprise XR, Nunez added, “I think we’re at a bit of a tipping point regarding where the work culture is and where the technology is.” Leading into 2025, the enterprise space is truly understanding what XR technology is and the emerging bussiness use cases for VR/AR/MR. Moreover, Nunez noted that enterprise end-users in areas like manufacturing are moving beyond the POC stages, enabling XR projects to scale from the pilot stage.
What Problems Is XR Solving in Big Businesses?
The way XR and any emerging technology truly scales within a business, moving beyond a pilot stage, is when XR champions can showcase results, positive ROI, and outcomes. “The most common that I see is being able to do knowledge transfers,” noted Feldman.
Feldman also added:
When you have manufacturing, you have people who maybe have been enrolled for 25, 30 years. When they leave, that’s a gaping hole in the enterprise; that amount of knowledge is gone from the company. So, we need to find a way to provide real resources and knowledge transfers, as well as to provide them on the factory floor.
Feldman explained that, for example, when a factory machine needs maintenance, “people are pulling up an iPad or a phone or they’re leaving the floor commercial completely to access a computer to find their resources.”
“It would be great for companies to have XR devices at each machine, providing real-time troubleshooting, real-time analytics, and how it’s performing,” Feldman added.
Moreover, on the manufacturing training side, machinery training procedures pose safety and financial risks to the production line, which XR technology can help mitigate. Feldman continued:
As we get into training in spatial computing, what we can then do is start using CAD schematics and digital resources to train workers as if we were really there.
Attracting New Workers
Valdez also noted that the “attractive nature” of integrating XR technologies holds equal value to that of the manufacturing sector. It provides a wow factor alongside practical use cases that can attract new workforce talent.
With emerging modern digitally native workforces choosing their vocational avenue, proficiency in workforce technologies is “a key asset; it can be a game changer” for successful businesses, Valdez stated.
Valdez also added that “in terms of being able to attract talent and then subsequently retain that talent,” emerging workforces must “feel that they are given the opportunity to upskill and learn additional proficiencies.”
Valdez noted:
But then the younger workforce—a lot of them—are indicating that this is a great talent acquisition. This is something that’s really attractive to hiring and maintaining a workforce.
The generational factor also relates to older workers, not just emerging ones. Valdez explained that there was sometimes a little “pushback for a time or an idea that the ageing workforce was a concern in bringing in XR technologies.”
Some firms commonly worry about factors like unfamiliarity with XR technology, changes to traditional training methods, and a lack of interest in learning new emerging technology processes, with a perception of older workers being less adaptable to new XR integrations.
However, Valdez found otherwise:
On the generational difference in training particularly. I found it to be really fascinating that not only individuals who are seasoned professionals weren’t less capable of using this technology or unfamiliar with it, but also that they bring in fundamentally different skill sets.
Nunez also explained that managing workplace perceptions was a core aspect of bringing in new talents. Nunuz said:
When you’re talking about manufacturing, people have a certain perception of what that kind of work is, and the perception is not always good. For example, they think it’s dirty, they think it’s dangerous, and they don’t think there is a real growth opportunity when you’re working in manufacturing. XR, as well as other technologies, can change that stereotype and change that perception.
The idea of managing emerging worker perceptions doesn’t end in the manufacturing sector; Valdez explained that XR technology can apply to every enterprise sector. The technology can help translate the values of certain pathways to individuals who are “just coming out of high school and deciding to go into a trade route or a college route” by presenting XR methods for highlighting skills ready for new hires to learn on the job.
Identifying the Issues XR Can Solve
XR emerged towards the start of the decade. While the technology existed long before that, emergent technologies like the Hololens 2 and Google Glass brought AR/VR/MR into a new light. The trend will continue into the second half of the decade, with more trusted companies working with spatial data solutions.
Feldman noted that the pandemic “accelerated the identification” of the issues XR can help solve. “I would love to say VR is coming at the perfect time, but honestly, we probably could have had a lot of this five or six years ago, and it would have been fantastic.”
Feldman added:
But I do think that the rate of innovation is moving faster in people now. I think a lot of people are now starting to see that we don’t need to be creating just all this cool VR technology; what we need to be creating for solutions.
Traditional training methods can vary significantly due to aspects such as the physical location of training materials and the characteristics of a mentor. But XR can bring consistency to the table: “Getting the right training steps that everyone agrees on can be done across the board,” remarked Nunez.
“There isn’t only an increase in retention when using VR for training, but also an increase in confidence,” added Valdez. Moreover, on the sustainability side and broader business culture, the travel implications of using VR for training and product design are reduced by negating the need for mentors to travel, using virtual environments instead.
Regarding cultural considerations between workers, Feldman explained:
When we went to digital communication, we pulled out all of our nonverbal communication traits; a lot of those nonverbal cues actually provide greater communication when talking with people. Just pointing at something, those nonverbal languages really helps us communicate. By adding XR nonverbal communication, it’s going to actually take into account cultural variables, but also allow greater communication across the cultures.
Collaborating with Worker to Ensure XR Scaling Success
Nunez also highlighted how union workers may play a role in integrating XR. Understanding how to talk to people can also help in understanding hardware parameters; “if you’re putting a headset on your head, that might be something that’s maybe not covered in the union contract; finding this information out sooner rather than later is very helpful.”
According to Nunez, speaking and collaborating with union stakeholders can help improve XR integrations, thanks to improved insights into a workforce’s everyday considerations and how XR can fit into a worker’s everyday expectations.
Nunez added:
Understanding, how can we make it better? What kind of challenges are you running into? Things like that. Treat them with respect, this is their territory, this is their environment, getting their input, listening to them, you really do need to listen to what their concerns are and their feedback. Once you win them over, if you do win them over, they’ll be your biggest advocate.
To learn more about VRARA’s research into this subject, check out the whitepaper.
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