The article beings with a true story about Hugh Roddy, VP of global engineering and project management at Chobani. Up until 10 months ago Roddy spent much of his time on the road traveling between the company’s plants in New York and Idaho, as well as periodically heading overseas to check in on the Australian factory. But his road warrior ways have been curbed by COVID-19, and now—like many of his manufacturing peers—he has to manage the projects and operations remotely.

As a result, Roddy has been turning to technology, including HMI (human machine interface) and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and augmented reality (AR) to remotely manage assets and troubleshoot machines. But he also needs visibility into how each plant is operating overall. A few years ago, that may have been a problem. But since Chobani’s adoption of Inductive Automation’s Ignition platform, which he describes as a modern day OT (operations technology) operating system, he’s been able to develop many different applications and dashboards, giving him and his team the ability to manage new projects, assist with the operations of current production lines, and gain an eagle’s eye view of individual plants from the enterprise level.

“When I log into our Ignition system I can see New York, Twin Falls (Idaho), and Australia at any given moment in time,” Roddy says. “The plants are more connected to what is happening downstream and upstream…and at the enterprise level it allows plants to be highly integrated from the plant floor to the executive level and back down.”

While Chobani adopted the Ignition platform years ago, other companies are just now starting their digital development journey—a process that has been put on fast-forward due to COVID-19. Now, every business, regardless of the industry segment, is finding new ways to stay connected.

People and processes
“The pandemic is accelerating the movement to digital and smart factories to keep operations running as efficiently as possible and to share [information] across cells in a plant, lines in a plant, or plants in a network,” says Paul Wellener, a vice chairman at Deloitte LLP and the leader of the company’s U.S. Industrial Products and Construction practice.

Deloitte, together with the Manufacturer’s Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI), recently published a report called “Accelerating Smart Manufacturing: The Value of an Ecosystem Approach,” which indicates that long-term partnerships in the form of an ecosystem can accelerate digital initiatives and drive results. According to the report, while the manufacturing industry was already on a digital transformation journey, it has historically been complicated by the complexity of digitally connecting assets that, in some cases, are more than 50 years old.

The disruption and economic hardship caused by the ongoing pandemic have increased the urgency to accelerate smart manufacturing initiatives for future competitiveness. In a recent MAPI CEO poll, 85% of leaders agreed or strongly agreed that investments in smart factories will rise by June 2021. And, while economists predict that overall business investments could be low for the next three cycles, respondents in the study indicated they are directing a greater share of their factory investments toward smart manufacturing initiatives.

Read the complete article on Automation World.

By investing in RealWear HMT-1 hands-free headsets equipped with Microsoft Teams, Mars Petcare found the perfect complement to its vision for more productive workplaces. Effortless, hands-free, and safer collaboration tools remain key to helping firstline associates at Mars Petcare become true equipment owners, making factories more productive and reducing travel and downtime due to maintenance.

Supporting autonomous maintenance with purpose-built technology

As Global Autonomous Maintenance Pillar Leader at Mars Petcare, one of David Oswald’s many responsibilities is autonomous maintenance. “As part of our Mars Supply Excellence program, we train and support our firstline teams to become true equipment owners responsible for the long-term reduction of losses. Our goal is to free up time on the shop floor to do the proactive work and make sure the equipment stays in a healthy condition.”

Through autonomous maintenance, Mars trains firstline associates to perform straightforward maintenance and preventative steps that keep equipment running like new—and keep factories at their most productive. The goal is for more streamlined factories and greater efficiency. “We say stop the stops,” says Oswald. “We target the short stops, such as resetting a machine or clearing a jam. We want an operator to run 240+ minutes without any intervention on their machine.”

Part of Oswald’s role requires finding the right technologies to support the Mars Supply Excellence program. To make collaboration effortless, he looks for highly mobile, hands-free devices designed specifically for the noisy, high-traffic reality of a manufacturing facility. That’s where RealWear hands-free headsets and Teams comes in, providing firstline associates on the factory floor tools that connect them to maintenance experts instantly for troubleshooting and training.

Teams on Realwear uses Teams meetings to power remote communication between HMT-1 users and their office-based colleagues. “The fact that the RealWear device works with Microsoft Teams was a big selling point for us,” says Oswald. “This allows us to connect associates on the shop floor with large numbers of people and collaborate in real time. Plus, the noise-canceling aspect of the ProBuds hearing-protection headphones and the hard-hat make it safe and ideal for the kinds of environments we work in.”

Other topics addressed in detail in the article include

1. Keeping associates more safe and secure with the right tools
2. Training and educating associates to drive efficiencies with new productivity tools
3. Saving travel time and supporting sustainability

Read the whole article online at Microsoft

See RealWear’s AREA member profile 

See Microsoft’s AREA member profile 

Scandit is focusing its marketing, partnership activities, and sales on the following industries of Japanese companies:

• Transport
• Manufacturing
• Retail
• Logistics

The machine learning and computer vision platform combines AR, text recognition, object recognition, and barcode scanning for any smart device equipped with a camera, such as mobile phones or wearables. Advantages of the software mentioned in the article include:

• Speed
• Accuracy
• Ability to scan in bad light
• Ability to scan at any angle
• Ability to scan with damaged labels
• Reduces time and cost of operations
• Empowers employees
• Improves customer engagement / satisfaction

Masahiro Sekine, Senior Sales Director at Scandit GK, has said that early results in Japan showcase “tremendous opportunities”. Digital transformation accelerates once companies witness the benefits of AR smart devices to replace dedicated scanners.

Enterprises in the aforementioned industries are using Scandit for the following:

• Powering mobile apps
• Mobile shopping
• Self-checkout
• Inventory management
• Proof of delivery
• Asset tracking

AEON Retail Co. Ltd. is a leading user of Scandit in the Japanese market. Operating Officer and Chief Officer of System Solution Division, Minoru Yamamoto, has stated expectations for the company with their application “RegiGo”. It integrates Scandit and enables customers to scan products while shopping before they pay, allowing for faster and more convenient shopping. AEON anticipates usage and productivity to improve as a result of Scandit’s Japanese office.

Each year, Scandit performs tens of billions of scans on 100+ million active devices, involving over 20 Japanese companies (mainly in distribution and retail), starting from AEON. Some of Scandit’s other 1,000 international customers include:

• FedEx
• Toyota Motors USA
• Levi Strauss & Co
• 7-Eleven, Inc
• Macy’s
• Alaska Airlines

CEO of Scandit, Samuel Mueller, has said that COVID-19 has made contactless transfer essential. The company’s presence in Japan increases accessibility to contactless scanning solutions in the present and future.

Read the full article here.

The following aspects of work are improved via AR:

• Collaboration
• Engagement
• Communication (with both consumers and employees)
• E-commerce
• Field service
• Workplace strategies

The overlay of images, objects, and spaces on the physical world transforms the customer experience into an immersive and interactive journey. AR forms a connection between our three-dimensional world and two-dimensional technology, creating a range of possibilities for enterprises of any industry.

An example of how AR can be used in businesses mentioned in the article is customers’ ability to search for information by visualising an object instead of clicking through pages online. Additionally, customers can present a malfunctioning object to a technician unable to see the issue on their end, and can also access the complete history of the relationship between the customer and communications service provider.

According to the article, marketing, e-commerce, and service will achieve the greatest advantages from AR. The following industries are listed as have existing AR use cases, such as remote training:

• Retail
• Healthcare
• Travel
• Public safety
• Banking
• Manufacturing

Specific use cases addressed in the article are:

• “Ask Mercedes”: Mercedes’ AR app virtually assists customers by answering questions about vehicles.
• Warby Parker: This prescription glasses company uses a combination of Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Artificial Intelligence to give glasses recommendations via an infrared camera that captures facial images.
• Westpac Bank: This New Zealand bank has developed an interactive AR mobile app for bank management; customers can scan their bank cards using their phone camera to see and manage their accounts.

Despite these use cases being customer-centric, they bring attention to how enterprises can also implement AR. In the ‘ICT Enterprise Insights Global Survey’ of over 4800 IT professionals, 61% said they have AR investments (minor or significant) planned for 2020, 24% said they have strategic AR investments planned, and 37% said they have minor AR investments.

The article concludes by acknowledging that better understanding of AR technologies will accelerate AR adoption. As AR becomes increasingly more vital for businesses, companies in all sectors must devise long-term strategies.

Read the full report, ‘Market Landscape: The Augmented Reality(AR)-Enabled Customer Experience’ here, and the full article here.

COVID-19 was a catalyst for the technology development, as it has increased the demand for real-time, remote support, and ensuring complex tasks are completed safely via live video connection with experts, and augmented, IoT data overlays. Librestream’s Onsight is an industry-leading platform that uses AR, created specifically to perform in rugged environments, which The AVR Lab required for meeting the demands of the Australian environment.

Industries in which Onsight is utilised include:

• Energy
• Oil and gas
• Aerospace
• Manufacturing
• Mining
• Heavy equipment
• Health

As the most comprehensive AR enterprise software on the market, Onsight offers insights via robust dashboards and data analytics. Advantages of the platform include:

• Creation of intelligence data via advanced AI and Computer Vision
• The ability to capture and centralise content for both audits and training
• Improved productivity and consistency via digital instructions
• Support and verification via remote expert video assistance
• IoT data visualisation from sources and test instruments

Danny Gambaro, Director of The AVR Lab, is quoted to have said that the company have been looking for a solution to Australian market requirements and rugged industries, and concluded that Librestream’s Onsight was one of the best. The teams are very much aligned and have found collaboration easy.

The VP of Business Development at Librestream, Tim Harader, is also quoted to have said that the organisation is “honoured” to have had their software chosen by The AVR Lab. Their platform allows customers to “achieve the benefits of AR”, for example, productivity, cost savings, and increased revenue among others. Harader believes that The AVR Lab’s choice to partner with Librestream, as an independent provider, reflects the strength of their solution.

Read the full article here.

When considering the deployment and use of any construction technology (ConTech), the main concerns of any Innovation Officer, Operations Director, or Senior Project Manager revolve around jobsite safety and the ability to scale across the entire organization.

You’re likely familiar with the impact AR is having on increasing quality and efficiency throughout the entire project lifecycle, but you may still be wondering how scalable it is, and how safely it can be used on a jobsite. After all, every emerging technology carries a certain degree of risk, and smart industry leaders are looking to ensure their organizations avoid any safety hazards associated with the new tech. 

The following sections are discussed in detail on the original article which can be viewed here.

1. Building Continuous Improvement Teams

2. Jobsite Safety and OSHA-10 Certification

3. Developing Your Personalized Go-to-Site Plan

4. Competitive edge

As a result of Covid-19 reducing face-to-face interactions, the retail must adapt quickly. Via Contentstack’s use of AR, retailers and brands can create engaging, contactless self-service experiences. This can further attract customers, increasing foot traffic.

Sonja Kotrotsos, Head of Product Marketing for Contentstack, is quoted to have said that the app demonstrates how easy integrating AR is, and that retailers can use emerging technologies to differentiate from other brands by building content-rich, interactive, dynamic experiences.

Contentstack and Valtech built their prototype application using cloud-native, API-first SaaS, headless (MACH) technologies, and microservices. The app simulates an in-store shopping experience for skincare products using web-based AR. The scenarios are as follows:

• First scenario: point of sale experience. Information on ingredients and product reviews for a range of serums is given, and a personalised recommendation is offered to the customer, based on a pre-existing profile (e.g. personal skincare goals or purchase history) or integrations with influencer marketing programmes.
• Second scenario: “first use” experience. After purchasing the serum, the customer receives usage instructions, such as how much and how frequently they should use the serum. Their existing skincare routine is extrapolated from here too.
• Last scenario: how the AR app is used once the customer has used the product for some time. Further personalised recommendations suggesting repurchase, adjusting use, or using a different product are given. Reviews can also be left by customers, which are then integrated into the first scenario.

Vice President of Commerce at Valtech, Pascal Lagarde, is quoted to have said Contentstack’s personalisation capabilities, simple internalisation, and a vigorous workflow enabled them to build the AR app. The beauty industry specifically requires personalised information that can be easily understood, and the proof of concept represents how retailers can support the shopping experience.

The article concludes by addressing how previous retail AR proof of concepts have been unsuccessful, therefore the Contentstack and Valtech prototype is promising news for both the retail industry and AR.

The £147 million invested by the government, and additional funding from industry, is intended to support the integration of new technology to increase productivity in manufacturing. This will further create many new high-skill jobs, attain new customers, reduce consumer prices, and reduce carbon emissions.

Fourteen cutting-edge manufacturing projects will be funded by the first £50 million; these will involve 29 larger businesses, 30 small or medium enterprises, and nine universities. Some of the winning projects include:

• Dialog – based in Flintshire, Dialog integrates human-interacting and automatic robots, allowing machines to make better and faster decisions in an efficient and affordable way.
• Smart Connected Shop Floor – GKN Aerospace, based in Bristol, is leading a multi-sector team testing digital technologies such as AR headsets for engineers. Smart devices will also be used to exchange information between outdated and more modern computer systems.
• The Digital Sandwich (Digitised Food Supply Chain) – based in Chelmsford, leading UK sandwich supplier Raynor Foods Ltd is developing major software that will enable catering businesses to connect online and share data, improving cash flow, boosting food quality, increasing productivity, and reducing waste.
• WeldZero – this West Midlands project will utilise sensors, automation, and robots to weld metal in production, improving accuracy and the general manufacturing process. The machines will hasten production in the automotive and construction industries via collecting and giving valuable data feedback, in addition to making stronger, higher quality parts.

The programme will further support SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) via government and private sector partnerships in which experts will work with businesses to recognise obstacles to growth and how to overcome them. A national network of innovation ‘hubs’ will also be made, allowing businesses to share advice or partner, sparking ideas and growth.

Alok Sharma, Business Secretary, is quoted to have said that the support of these ground-breaking projects will drive economic recovery in the UK via increasing productivity. Secretary of State for Wale, Simon Hart, has further stated that Wales’ existing industry can be vital for the next manufacturing generation, and the aim is to develop a resilient economy in Wales via manufacturing with the UK government’s commitment.

The article concludes by stating that the UK government will spend 2.4% of GDP on R&D throughout the economy by 2027 to earn power and boost productivity.

The leading standalone VR headset, Oculus Quest, has been increasingly focusing on controllerless hand-tracking as a means of input for the device. Other major headset makers, like Microsoft and its HoloLens 2, have also honed in on hand-tracking as a key input method. As industry leaders coalesce around hand-tracking, it becomes increasingly important for competing devices to offer similar functionality.

But hand-tracking isn’t a ‘solved’ problem, making it a challenge for organizations that don’t have the resources of Facebook and Microsoft to work out their own hand-tracking solution.

Our community of readers interested in AR in the enterprise are likely to be interested in a recent article in Forbes Technology Council from the experience and perspective of Dan Gamota, working at a high-tech lab co-located in a Silicon Valley innovation center.

!Going to work was an opportunity to be fully immersed in a continuous learning environment with cutting-edge technologies and some of the best minds in engineering, science and manufacturing. Until, of course, the day we shifted to a work-from-home model.  Overnight, we were separated from each other as well as our vital lab hardware, software and tools. Yet we still are developing dozens of critical manufacturing processes, many of which have been transferred, deployed and audited in factories and facilities all over the world.”

The team moved on despite the pandemic with seamless collaboration and accelerate innovation, by collectively reaching for thier augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets.

These tools already have proven indispensable for training production-line operators while guiding them through complex manufacturing operations. In Singapore, for instance, a team of engineers working in our additive manufacturing center uses AR to reduce training time by 50% on complex 3D printers. Similarly, AR helps speed maintenance instruction training and facilitates remote support. Topcs covered in the article include Building Cyber-Physical Bridges, Innovation Without Boundaries and Advancing Innovation With Avatars.

Read the full original article here.