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Virtual reality can show customers how their end-product will look. “You get closer to your expertise, and that can be used for both customers and suppliers.”
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“With AR you can draw on a field of vision, insert bubbles or have manuals pop up for the application,” Mehkri explained.
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Telecommunications and video are solving some of those problems, but content is lacking.” Source: PTCĪugmented reality can display annotations on a project or visually demonstrate how to complete as task. “Now, a customer-support check could mean flying halfway around the world. “We could use AR to collaborate with designers and provide remote assistance,” Mehkri said. Productivity is gained by a reduction in design iterations, and by working those downstream efficiencies into the design requirements more efficiently.Įven the most experienced designer doesn’t always account for how a product is physically built. Design-use cases typically drive the design-for (DFX) value propositions, where designers visualizing products at scale can engineer based on manufacturing and service efficiencies, sustainability, cost or ergonomics. Opportunities to leverage AR/VR capabilities across the value chain are diverse, with heaviest concentrations in design, manufacturing, service, and training. “AR could be used to show the best way to make something and having that information on record to be studied and archived. “The way a designer places their finger or bends a wire - that’s a level of experience that isn’t always captured,” he said. “If it is archived, it’s a bunch of work instructions followed by a process-definer that outlines the product.” That doesn’t capture the art of making the product. “This kind of experience is usually shared onsite or through people talking with one another,” Mehkri explained. Flex sees applications for institutional knowledge. The way in which manufacturing information has been documented, maintained, and shared has historically been slow and costly. Interact, or using AR to manipulate digital graphics or interface with a smart, connected product, is an emerging capability that will grow as AR becomes integrated with more business. To achieve these benefits, use cases being developed are leveraging AR to provide instruction or guidance. Most enterprises are adopting AR for their internal use and benefit, marking improvements in operational efficiency or lower costs as main value drivers, according to research by PTC, a digital solutions provider. Users can send out information and share what they are doing in real-time. “We see uses such as remote assistance, or you can collaborate with people anywhere in the world on a design and draw something in real-time,” he said. Machines are digitized, people are analog, so AR/VR adds a layer of human-device connectivity. “You hear all the buzzwords - IoT and M2M - and one way to think about this is connecting people - the way they move, the way they communicate - to each other and with machines,” Mehkri said. If AR/VR technologies catch on, as many believe, combined sales are forecast to hit $150 billion by 2020, according to a Manatt Digital Media estimate-with AR alone comprising about $120 billion.Ĭonnectivity is driving the manufacturing industry’s interest in AR/VR. AR and VR are usually lumped together, but they are inherently different in the development of the products.” The use case depends on where the product is in its lifecycle. “It has a place in design, usability and product lifecycle management. “ is something that will not only impact Flex, but the industry in general,” said Zohair Mehkri, XR and Simulation Engineering Manager at Flex. The company’s focus includes enhancing its global manufacturing processes and delivering customer solutions through M2M communication smart automation and robotics augmented/virtual reality 3D manufacturing simulation and visualization and business intelligence. Flex, a $25 billion electronics design and manufacturing services (EMS) provider, envisions expanding that universe even further.ĪR/VR is so important to the manufacturing industry that Flex has adopted it as one of six key pillars of its Industry 4.0 strategy. As augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies come of age, manufacturers are finding ways to adopt these technologies on a variety of fronts, including product development, training, maintenance, repair and worker safety.
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