Effective supply chains with Augmented Reality
A high number of enterprises today are adopting AR, both internal to the organization and external to customers and partners. Internal use cases include employing the technology to boost operational efficiencies, drive cost optimization, and shorten the development lifecycle. External activities are characterized by delivery and customer service.
Industrial AR adoption for internal uses focus on:
- Service manuals & instructions
- Service inspection & verification
- Operator & assembly work instructions
- Digital design review
- Maintenance work instructions
- Virtual product companion
- Remote expert guidance
- Knowledge transfer
There are several use cases for AR deployment. Multiple companies have adopted the smart glasses technology and leverage line of sight to assist workers in scanning barcodes through the glasses, leaving them hands free to perform picking tasks. Pick-by-vision technology enables the user to view, for example, highlighted boxes or shelf locations to pick from in a warehouse, or to optimize packing instructions to reduce waste, size and shipping cost.
Smart glasses can also be used to train manufacturing workers by communicating and verifying manufacturing steps and recommending improvements to manufacturing instruction.
In delivery services, a “last mile” AR solution can aid navigation by giving information about alternate routes, blocked roads and traffic hitches to a driver. The goods kept on the back of a truck can be supervised by checking the virtual images on the windshield. At the time of delivery, customers can be verified by the delivery agent using facial recognition technology.
Nokia is at the forefront of AR technology through its “Factory in a Box”. The concept demonstrates that a factory can be packed and transported and be fully operational combining AR/VR, robotics and enabled by 5G connectivity. In the container-sized factory, technicians wear AR glasses or eyepieces that permit them to view and assist in various steps in a manufacturing process. The manufacturing process, alongside the AR capabilities are assisted via the Digital Automation Cloud.
In the automotive industry, BMW has seen significant time-savings and error reduction through AR adoption. A worker in an assembly line can use glasses or goggles to overlay heads up display onto the physical world, assisting in production, maintenance and interacting with the warehouse management system. Essentially, AR can help “digitize” Kanban system by improving on a lean manufacturing system to assist in material picking, pre-assembling and delivering parts to a production line with zero errors.
AR will become an industry standard add-on to physical products. Superimposing holographic images and instructions on physical products can enrich operator experience. In turn, this would drive higher employee engagement, lower attrition rates, and less workload for supply chain operators.
