The single most compelling reason to invest in enterprise Augmented Reality is to improve the productivity of people while on the job. Workplace performance is a broad concept that can be measured in many ways, and the impacts of a new user interface providing contextually sensitive information are new to most technology managers.

During the ARise ’15 conference, Matt Kammerait, Vice President of Products at DAQRI, presented some of the methodologies currently in use for gathering metrics and assessing the full impact of introducing Augmented Reality. This post builds upon experiences shared in the presentation and offers project leaders suggestions for how to quantify the impacts of enterprise AR.

Consider the Organizational Attitudes and Experience with Innovation

Before selecting the metrics for an AR project, consider the attitudes and experience of the various stakeholders in your organization. Aligning the project objectives with stakeholder goals and adapting available best practices or existing metrics from other projects can boost the chance of success. It will help when you want to expand the project beyond the pilot stage.

In parallel, those defining the parameters of an internal study need to take into account industry-wide metrics or constraints. Time savings is very important, but may not be the most important or best metric for all industries. In industries where workers’ lives are at risk, safety is almost surely a more important organizational metric. If an industry is heavily regulated, then compliance is likely to be at or near the top of the list.

It’s important to prioritize potentially valuable metrics. Take into account the time requirement and cost of studying each type of metric as an organizational constraint during the design phase.

If capturing detailed or complex metrics will increase the need for specialized staff and otherwise exceed the study resources, compromises based on the original set of priorities will need to be made.

Detect the Broad Patterns

Human-computer interfaces are key to the digital economy. Screens, keyboards, speakers, cameras and microphones provide faster and more accurate ways to acquire information or knowledge or, conversely, to quickly develop and communicate it. Knowledge workers build value with computers and networks by manipulating pixels that form meaningful symbols such as numbers, letters, lines and even virtual 3D objects.

In contrast to the tools in use by knowledge workers today, Augmented Reality is most useful when and where people interact with, or perform tasks with objects in the physical world. In the use cases that guide workers, Augmented Reality-assisted visualization provides individuals who lack information or encounter obstacles a means to retrieve and use digital symbols directly, without losing focus on the physical world.

Before any Augmented Reality introduction project begins, the objects with which people interact and the interactions themselves can be inventoried. The most frequently manipulated objects are going to be most familiar and the least likely to benefit from an AR-assisted interface. On the contrary, it is those processes or objects that are infrequently encountered and yet complex where the greatest potential for Augmented Reality can be tapped.

Which tasks or objects frequently present obstacles in terms of inexperience, limited human cognition or memory lapses? For example, in a warehouse, nearly every order or the contents of every truck is unique. There’s very little that past experience or strength can do to help humans perform their job better, but a digital guide for where to find an object or how to pack it on a palette, can reduce the need for search, trial and error.

In a field service scenario, every part has had a unique life history with respect to use, environmental conditions and other factors. Workers can better use past experience for rapid diagnostics when the track record of the part is rapidly and clearly available. 

Learning or training organizations are often good partners for project managers who want to document patterns across a workforce when performing key processes. These groups have a unique perspective on the tasks that are the most difficult to teach or retain, and may also have well established methods for measuring performance in the lab and on the ground.  

Capture Ground Truth

Prior to introducing Augmented Reality, perform a systematic measurement of the un-assisted process. Interviews with those who will participate in the project are always beneficial to assess attitudes about the new technology, but the documentation of ground truth must include actual task observations.

Accompanying a person and observing all their activities is one way to document their existing processes but this is likely to introduce a variety of errors in the data. If possible, automatic measuring tools that are completely invisible to the subject and do not interfere in any way with the normal flow of tasks should be explored.

Frequently, when a person needs assistance and cannot easily find the information in a manual, there is a need to consult another worker. Since AR could reduce the need for a person to seek assistance from others, the impacts on other workers’ productivity should also be considered.

A representative sample of people with different training or experience levels is key to getting good ground truth data. By observing the methods of a novice as well as a highly skilled journeyman and people between the two ends of the spectrum, it may be possible to narrow down a limited number of steps that are most likely to benefit from AR support.

Build Recording and Capture Tools into the System

When designing AR experiences, it may be possible to record the achievement of specific steps or the entire session of use. This may require mounting an independent camera into a workspace, or adding components to the AR delivery platform.  To get the highest fidelity recording may require adjustments to ambient lighting since the AR experience setting may not be suitable for the camera that is recording activities. If using a mobile platform to capture activities, the additional task of recording interactions will impact battery life and, if network-based storage is part of the design, the communication needs (in terms of coverage and bandwidth) will certainly be different than those of the AR-assisted application itself.

Another key component when recording the user’s interaction is to have permission in advance for the project to use the recording in documenting the impacts of the AR-enabled system. Usually a simple release is adequate but in a unionized work setting, having the cooperation and support of the union might be necessary for successfully documenting the impacts.

Be Flexible

In some projects, the additional information provided by an Augmented Reality-assisted system introduces new opportunities to save resources, to catch un-discovered errors or even to document entirely new methods to complete a task. It may also enhance the work experience of the employee, which may be an important “soft metric” that is difficult to assess. In general, these are all important factors to consider, even if difficult to quantify.

In order to reduce the likelihood of overlooking the qualitative (as well as unanticipated quantitative) impacts, projects should include an in-depth exit interview.  This can be conducted either online or face-to-face. In the interview with study participants, invite discussion and feedback on all aspects of the experience. Something valuable is likely to shed light on metrics collected as well as other obstacles to, or drivers of adoption.

Recommendations

Every organization has a unique approach to new technology introduction and different industries place emphasis on different performance metrics, but there are some basic best practices to follow, based on past experience of AREA members. When designing an AR introduction impact measurement system, project leaders can apply these best practices:

1. Consider the business setting and management priorities in order to design metrics that matter most to those making the final decisions.
2. Collaborate with different stakeholders and groups to identify and thoroughly document characteristics of bottlenecks or pain points that are common or similar across diverse professional skill sets, tasks, groups, products or facilities in the organization (e.g., transit time, down time, assembly errors and inspections).
3. Capture existing processes that are part of the proposed AR introduction use case, as performed by both novices and senior members of the workforce, without the assistance of new technology.
4. Build in or set up recording systems that do not interfere with or impact the user’s performance or the AR experience delivery.
5. Perform an exit interview and keep an open mind about impacts that the user may have perceived that were not originally part of the study’s measured parameters.

How have you designed your pilot to capture metrics, and have the measurements helped to estimate the impact the introduction of Augmented Reality will have in your organization? Please leave your feedback below.

Want to hear more? Watch this video…

Which of the many use cases for enterprise Augmented Reality should you implement first?

Selecting the best use cases for enterprise Augmented Reality introduction is arguably one of the most important steps that business managers will perform when exploring the technology’s potential to impact workplace performance.

During the ARise ’15 conference, Carl Byers, president of the AREA and Chief Strategy Officer of Contextere, presented key concepts and provided valuable recommendations for those who are planning to introduce AR in their organizations. This post builds upon those remarks.

Why Use Case Selection is Important

Careful selection of use cases for your company’s first AR project is critical for several reasons. First, the project will be used to choose the tools and to pilot the selected technologies while learning their benefits and limitations. Second, successful results will illustrate AR’s potential and help obtain buy-in for further investments from other groups and management.

The enterprise IT department is frequently involved with vendor selection and assessments of new tools. Since hardware is almost always involved in the delivery of AR experiences, the IT department may consider support for enterprise mobility management, connectivity and data security among other processes and objectives. The evaluation of a vendor’s training and support programs may also be performed during or in parallel with the development of the first project. Consider use cases that leverage prior positive experiences with IT introduction projects. A use case in a department that has not had prior IT-assisted technology introductions may introduce unforeseen problems.

Other departments, for example, human performance support and training organizations, also frequently feel they have a stake in how Augmented Reality is introduced.  Their interests need to be weighed and considered when selecting initial use cases.

Driving Internal Rate of Return for AR

The ultimate goal of introducing a new technology is to improve operational efficiency. Efficiency might be improved by driving down costs or time, or improve workforce productivity. Sometimes capturing the full value of a new technology involves organizational change.

When evaluating possible AR use cases, it’s important to consider how deeply changes associated with AR introduction may impact a business process, or multiple processes. An initial, low-cost research project in a sandboxed environment or an isolated field support improvement for one specific piece of equipment may be just right. But if the organization’s management is exploring more dramatic changes, AR introduction may be part of a larger initiative.

When considering the details of the AR introduction project and calculating IRR, it’s important to examine the productivity changes that could, once demonstrated for an isolated case, be applied across an entire factory or line of products and customers. Consider how a few small and specific pilots could meet your long term goals.

That said, it’s well known that large-scale change is usually slower. Should an AR pilot be considered as part of a larger organizational transition, the project may have to cope with many more variables and could experience greater delays.  The good news is that, if proven in the context of a broader change management approach, AR adoption may be driven from within as “just an integral part” of the organizational improvements.  

Complexity that’s Easily Tracked

Early resistance to AR projects has, in some organizations, been traced to the fact that the task or use case that was selected for AR testing was easy for an employee to perform unassisted. The lesson is that if there isn’t a pain point, AR isn’t needed.  Don’t waste valuable time, money or political “capital” of an organization.

That said, there are also risks in overreaching with respect to the current state of the art of Augmented Reality. If the user pain point proposed for a use case involves conditions that are difficult for current AR systems to identify or objects that are difficult to track, the technology may not perform reliably. Lack of reliability and repeatability fuels doubts and generally reduces the user and management’s appetite for the new technology.

Leveraging Existing Enterprise Data Stores

Developing the first AR experiences for a pilot requires new skills, methodologies and tools. Rather than adding to the project workload by developing new content as well, a use case can reuse or leverage existing enterprise data.

While some assets may need to be modified or adapted for mobile delivery platforms, overall project complexity will be lower and less costly when new AR experiences are based on existing enterprise data.

Involving Mission Critical Systems

Whenever mission critical or other high-impact enterprise systems are involved in an AR pilot project, the project may be escalated to management levels that are more risk averse: the CEO doesn’t want to do anything that might impact sales and stock prices, and the C-suite frequently shares that aversion to risk. On the other hand, if you can gain their support, their subordinates will be on board with the project and there will be fewer delays due to internal doubts.

The need for deep testing of any interface with a mission critical system, if that’s the route that’s recommended for an early AR project, is more costly and time consuming and may introduce unanticipated delays. If testing fails, integration with mission critical systems may cause the project to be cancelled.

Recommendations

1. Choose one or a few use cases where value can be measured clearly. For example, reduced down time, increased safety or compliance.
2. Focus on simple, practical, quick value capture. In the figure below we show how seven different factors can be weighted:
   1. Use a standard network architecture
   2. Design for bursty communication for longer battery life
   3. Identify where there’s large differences between novice and expert performance
   4. Make it easy to capture and repeat best practices
   5. Find use cases where some network services (e.g., videoconferencing with an expert) or special equipment (e.g., safety glasses) is already required
   6. Solve a current or recurring pain point
   7. Provide access to enterprise data systems via mainstream (legacy) interfaces
3. Thoroughly document all assumptions, steps taken and feedback, and share these with your technology partner.

Source: APX Labs

Choose and Choose Again

There are potentially hundreds of interesting use cases, and we’re currently building a use cases listing on the AREA site.

Choosing the initial AR use case is, as we’ve discussed, important but not the end of the process.

Frequently there are multiple AR use cases that can impact the operational efficiency of an enterprise. As a result, it’s not unusual for an AR pilot project to take workflows of multiple departments or processes into account. If this is the case, make sure the different use cases are well defined and the lessons learned in one project are captured and applied to others.

What are the initial use cases you’ve considered for evaluating whether Augmented Reality is right for your organization?

Want to hear more? Watch this video…

Shipbuilding has been the perfect environment for industrial innovation for hundreds of years. Sails to steam, wood to iron, rivets to welds, blueprints to CAD, stick-built to modular construction–all major innovations to building extraordinarily complex vehicles. At Newport News Shipbuilding, we constantly seek new innovations to improve our safety, quality, cost, and schedules. Since 2007, we have explored Augmented Reality as a means to shift away from paper-based documentation in our work.

Since we began looking into AR for construction, operation, and maintenance workflows, we’ve come up with hundreds of use-cases to improve tasks or processes. These range from assisting shipbuilders in painting, ship-fitting, electrical installation, pipefitting, and more in several ways – on new construction ships, ship overhaul, facility maintenance, and decommissioning. Every use-case improves our ability to deliver nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines, but at different degrees of improvement.

We’re always adding new use-cases to the list, and we’ve needed to devise an adaptable framework for organizing and categorizing existing, proven uses and prioritizing future, potential use-cases.

Genesis of a Use Case

Augmented Reality should be employed first in places where it creates the most value – and that actually can be subjective. Sometimes, this is helping people become more efficient and working more quickly, sometimes this is about helping to reduce errors and rework, and sometimes it is all about improving safety. At Newport News Shipbuilding, a dedicated team of AR professionals help determine where AR is best suited, whether the technology is ready for the use-case, and how to best implement and scale a solution.

The first step in defining a use-case is performed by an AR industrial engineer, who determines where AR brings value in a workflow. She first meets with a skilled craftsman, and understands their challenges and needs. The industrial engineer identifies pain points in processes, such as when and where shipbuilders must consult paper documentation to complete a task. She must also consider human factors and always balance the needs of the craftsman against the capability of the AR solution as it can be delivered today.

Then, the AR engineer works with an AR designer and an AR developer to deliver a product. The AR designer determines the available data, components, interfaces and models for the system to satisfy requirements. Once the use-case is fully defined and the data is assembled, an AR developer implements software solutions, tests the system, and ensures reliable and adaptable development tools. At the end of the process, a new use-case is addressed, and a high-value product is delivered to the skilled craftsman.

A Classification Scheme

Over the years we’ve devised hundreds of use-cases and needed a way to understand and prioritize them. We started by categorizing them into a taxonomy that we think of as general, but we admit they might be specific to our business. We call these our seven use-case categories.

These 7 categories then are applied across three additional axes. These variables create a volume of exploration, or “trade space” for each use-case. The three application axes are as follows.

Return on Investment

When investing in new technology, it’s important to find those areas offering the highest return on investment (ROI) for every dollar spent. At the same time, there are potentially high value use-cases that are simply not conducive to an AR solution today. As a professional AR team, we pride ourselves on understanding when we can have an impact, when we can have a really big impact, and when AR technology simply isn’t yet up to the challenge. We primarily focus on advancing the seven use-case categories, and use the three variable axes to ensure we are maximizing customer value and ROI. As our expertise has grown, and as the technology matures, we have steadily increased value and readiness of AR throughout the entire trade space.

Today, we assess highest potential ROI and use that as a metric for scaling priority. Our model shows the greatest ROI in use-cases for inspection, work instruction, and training. Our focus there is now on scalability. We also know that the ROI is really tied directly to the technology readiness levels (TRL) of AR for those use-cases. While we are certain there will be benefit, maybe even higher ROI, on workflow management, operations, safety, and logistics – the readiness levels of AR for those use-cases within our trade space simply isn’t as high (today) as for the first three mentioned. You can’t scale what doesn’t yet work. So for the latter four uses, therefore, the investment isn’t in scalability, but rather in improving the TRL.

As Augmented Reality technology becomes more capable and less expensive to implement, enterprises will find ever-increasing uses. We’d like to learn how others in different industries have been developing theirs. Please share your comments and experiences with us.

Data is the glue that connects customers, products and departments—the living tissues—of an enterprise. Without data and new methods of producing, collecting, storing and using life-giving data, companies and markets shut down. And, for the past decade we’ve been hearing how some companies transform themselves and their industries with more and better data, and how systems that leverage enormous amounts of data—Big Data—continue to receive huge investment.

Some of those who were successful in introducing Big Data are now surrounding themselves, and building new businesses (or new opportunities for old businesses) with “smart, connected products.” You might’ve read about early versions of such products. These are physical objects built with connectivity and embedded sensors that pump out and ingest real time data for a specific purpose. Bruce Sterling coined the term “Spimes” to capture how these physically real objects also have a strong sense of their place and time. They are fundamentally important to a generation of 21^st century businesses that see a future based on Big Data, but they are hard to make and use.

A Framework for Answering Big Questions

Few question the need for smart, connected products. The big questions for which many managers would like simple and clear answers are how to design the best smart, connected products and how to develop new businesses (or better, more efficient business processes) around these.

In my opinion, few business leaders have been able to better communicate the necessary ingredients and steps for designing, building and using smart, connected products for business transformation than Michael E. Porter, faculty member at Harvard Business School, and James E. Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC.

Originally published in Harvard Business Review on November 2014, their first article on smart, connected products defines the domain and the new technology stack upon which the domain is based. The new technology stack Porter and Heppelmann define is composed of:

• New product hardware
• Embedded software
• Connectivity
• A product cloud consisting of software running on remote servers
• A suite of security tools
• A gateway for external information sources
• Integration with enterprise business systems

The authors then explain how these smart, connected products are exerting pressure on businesses by changing the competitive landscape for those companies who adopt and deploy them, and those who don’t. Essentially, the focus of the article is on how to use smart, connected products to manage or change the competitive landscape.

Building a Bridge between Smart, Connected Products and People

In the October 2015 issue of Harvard Business Review, another article by the same authors provides insights into the internal use of smart, connected products. It focuses on their use in transforming businesses and their value chains.  For those of us involved in the introduction and deployment of Augmented Reality in enterprise, this is a highly useful guide and conceptual resource to study and have handy.

“How to Smart Connected Products are Transforming Business” adds concepts that utilize and build upon the previously defined technology stack and the original framework while also examining the human side of smart product introduction.

Porter and Hepplemann explain that smart, connected products require a new design discipline. The use of Augmented Reality is one of the ways that changes in design are transforming the value of limited resources, primarily by reducing task execution times by humans by displaying specialized knowledge in the field of view.

Augmented Reality is also making other processes more efficient. From configuration of unfamiliar instruments to after-sales services, the authors repeatedly illustrate how having data accessible and visible in context is reducing the time and the errors that can increase the cost of complex processes.

Many industries will be transformed by smart, connected products using new, contextually sensitive user interfaces. Although they never use the buzzword “Industry 4.0,” the authors give a wide range of examples and conclude that manufacturing companies (or manufacturing departments within other industries) are the first to tap this potential in a meaningful way.

People Remain a Limited and Valuable Resource

The adoption of Augmented Reality in enterprise fundamentally builds upon the successful introduction of smart, connected products. It will not be able to deliver on its potential without parallel investments in other enterprise IT systems, in particular those that produce, collect and store data in the new products.  

Investments in technology are required but not sufficient. One of the take home messages of the second installment of Porter and Hepplemann’s smart, connected products series is that people trained in the new design disciplines, and in the development of experiences and systems built upon them, are rare.

New expertise needed for smart product design and use is in desperately short supply. Before those with the expertise are available in numbers sufficient to meet future demand, business leaders need to develop new cultures that place value on collaboration between people in different product and service life cycle phases. New incentive models will be developed to reward productivity without errors and higher compliance levels than have ever been possible.

In the end, or at least for the next transformation of business, people using data in better and faster ways remain more important than simply producing and storing more data.

Has your organization defined roles suitable for the next transformation of business?

The AREA has a vision and, at the same time, we must remain pragmatic. Let me explain.

We’re all familiar with the myths about the industrial revolution: it happened overnight, right? Coal leapt out of the ground and formed coke. Iron became steel and the rest is history. Then, 100 years later, in the late-20^th century, computers profoundly changed what people could do with their knowledge and, using networked computers, silicon-driven industries revolutionized how people communicate and how just about everything—human and machine—works.

In the future, businesses will experience another transformation that will have a big impact on workers who have spent far less time behind computer screens than knowledge workers. Largely without the assistance of silicon-based computational devices, they move themselves and materials around; they build, transform, maintain, use, repair and even take apart objects in the physical world.  They are pragmatic when it comes to the introduction of new technologies.

Soon, the procedures these workers need to follow will leap into their line of sight and at their fingertips, endowing them with the knowledge of those who benefited from the previous cyber revolution.

Improving Workplace Performance

Augmented Reality-assisted enterprise systems will drive significant improvements in many operations, as measured by lower costs and higher productivity. Those whose work requires guidance, decision support or collaboration concerning objects and places in the physical world will, through contextually relevant visualization of information: 

• Be more productive
• Operate more safely
• Consistently comply with all policies and procedures
• Perform tasks with the lowest possible number of errors

But first, some innovative leaders have to take risks and make investments that may, as when Matthew Boulton continued to finance the research of James Watt, appear imprudent.

Who Are We Talking About?

The steam engine and industrial revolution did not happen overnight. It was only many years after entering into partnership with entrepreneur Matthew Boulton that the concepts and hard work of James Watt produced significant efficiency improvements by comparison with the earliest model steam engines.

The AREA recognizes that many investors will take risks before Augmented Reality is mature. There will also be many engineers whose brilliance of conception and practical know-how will be needed to improve the productivity of workers.

Who Are We Talking To?

We’re talking to you: the developer, the business manager, the IT group, the learning department manager, the innovation group, and the executive office.

You each need different arguments to persuade you of the value of investing in enterprise Augmented Reality.  Our content and informational programs are being designed to match the needs of these diverse groups of stakeholders.

Our target audiences are not limited to those in enterprises that are implementing Augmented Reality for their internal operational needs. We also recognize target audiences in organizations that provide goods and services to enterprise customers. These include the providers of core enabling technologies and vendors of enterprise IT hardware and software, as well as systems integrators of many kinds.

Pragmatic, Like Our Members

Everyone wants to quickly achieve goals towards AR introduction. But hype builds up unrealistic expectations. Disappointed decision makers may not shoulder the risks again.

In order to help all these different groups present their offers and, on the other hand, understand what they are acquiring or introducing into their businesses, the AREA is pragmatic.

The AREA’s programs are designed to simply and consistently:

• Reduce the myths and mysteries associated with Augmented Reality
• Help customers to establish reasonable expectations (where they can be met with existing technologies)

Pragmatism with practical information—not  hype—is as important as vision.

The AREA offers unique content about enterprise Augmented Reality that you won’t find elsewhere. This post shows you how to find and take advantage of all that the website provides.

When you know what you’re looking for, we suggest entering a few keywords in the search box.

Learning about Augmented Reality and Staying up to Date

We offer different types of engaging content yet navigation is easy. There are only six items on the menu.

If you are new to enterprise Augmented Reality, browse the pages under the “Why AR for Enterprise” menu. They are packed with articles on technologies, use cases, getting started and more basic information about this exciting field.

Visiting the AREA website is a great way to stay informed about trends and happenings in enterprise Augmented Reality. AREA blog posts, news and events are easy to find using these menus along the top of the screen.

AREA members are industry leaders in Augmented Reality and regularly contribute their opinions, ideas and insights to the AREA blog. We make sure you know about relevant industry news on enterprise Augmented Reality topics from around the web through our curated news pages. Finally, we keep you looking ahead by sharing highlights of upcoming member and industry gatherings through postings to our events calendar.

Member Portal

Some parts of the site are only accessible by members in good standing. Here all classes of members will find targeted content that helps them to get ahead in the Augmented Reality space. Examples include case studies, research, time-sensitive information under development by AREA committees and other upcoming features.

Currently member-exclusive content is found in the “Resources” menu. Join the AREA today to help drive changes in your organization and reserve exclusive access to our member network, content portal and more.

About the AREA

Finally, under “The AREA” menu at the far right, there’s a wealth of information about our organization. This includes in-depth profiles of our members and their achievements, our board, information on being a member, AREA committees for marketing and defining upcoming technical frameworks, the newsroom and our FAQ.

Our board members invest their time and financial resources towards the successful achievement of the AREA’s goals by serving on the board of directors and as committee chairs.

Our committees are listed on a dedicated page and members will use this page to access committee deliverables.

To learn more about membership plans and the process for joining, visit the membership information page and FAQ.

We Want to Hear from You

We welcome your feedback and comments. Do you have questions about the AREA or enterprise Augmented Reality? Can we help clarify any mysteries or myths you’ve heard about Augmented Reality?

Please register to leave a comment on this page or send us a message using our contact page.

In contrast to companies that are responding and reacting to changing conditions without a plan, strategic enterprises systematically apply the best planning and management processes.

A strategic enterprise successfully integrates emerging and mature systems to improve processes and outcomes. Managers in strategic enterprises factor in their existing information systems development and maintenance efforts, as well as any new technology introduction when guiding their businesses towards the achievement of goals.

The AREA and AR in Strategic Enterprises

AREA members met with strategic enterprise managers in Sheffield on July 1. The focus of the event was on how to introduce and integrate AR into strategic enterprises.

Over the course of the day, AREA members shared their experiences and recommendations for choosing use cases, preparing data for use in AR experiences, choosing and training users for AR pilots and introduction activities, measuring impacts and managing risks associated with AR introduction.

The AREA’s Value Added

The sessions are a perfect example of AREA members demonstrating their thought leadership and collaborating to share knowledge with others. In addition to the valuable discussions made possible during the networking and panel sessions, the recordings of the presentations are now available for viewing on YouTube.

Through the ARise event and its sessions, the AREA and its members are accelerating AR adoption in the corporate environment. As Executive Director of the AREA, I am proud to present the 11-session series and hope you will gain additional insights into the ways Augmented Reality can benefit your enterprise.

Technological and cultural shifts that result in enhancements in manufacturing tend to increase complexity in products and processes. In turn, this complexity increases requirements in manufacturing and puts added pressure on organizations to squeeze out inefficiencies and lower costs where and when feasible.

This trend is acute in aerospace, where complexity, quality and safety require a large portion of final assembly to be done by humans. Corporations like AREA member Boeing are finding ways to improve assembly workflows by making tasks easier and faster to perform with less errors.

At ARise ’15, Paul Davies of Boeing presented a wing assembly study in collaboration with Iowa State University, showing dramatic differences in performance when complex tasks are performed following 2D work instructions versus Augmented Reality.

A Study in Efficiency

In the study, three control groups were asked to assemble parts of a wing, which required over 50 steps to assemble nearly 30 different parts. Each group performed the task using three different modes of work instruction:

• A desktop computer screen displaying a work instruction PDF file. The computer was immobile and sat in the corner of the room away from the assembly area.
• A mobile tablet displaying a work instruction PDF file, which participants could carry with them.
• A mobile tablet displaying Augmented Reality software showing the work instructions as guided steps with graphical overlays. A four-camera infrared tracking system provided high-precision motion tracking for accurate alignment of the AR models with the real world.

Subjects assembled the wing twice; during the first attempt, observers measured first time quality (see below) before disassembling the wing and having participants reassemble it to measure the effectiveness of instructions on the learning curve.

Participants’ movements and activities were recorded using four webcams positioned around the work cell. In addition, they wore a plastic helmet with reflective tracker balls that allowed optical tracking of head position and orientation in order for researchers to visualize data about how tasks were fulfilled. Tracker balls were also attached to the tablet (in both AR and non-AR modes).

First Time Quality

To evaluate the ability of a novice trainee with little or no experience to perform an operation the first time (“first time quality”), errors are counted and categorized. The study revealed that tablet mode yielded significantly less errors (on average) than desktop mode.

In the diagram above, the blue bar represents the first assembly attempt and the green bar is the second. The diagram also shows that subjects using Augmented Reality mode made zero errors on average per person, indicating the potential of AR to improve first time quality for assembly tasks.

Rapid assembly

This diagram measures time taken to complete tasks by mode, both the first and second time. AR-assisted participants completed tasks faster the first time than with other modes

Conclusions

Overall the study witnessed an almost 90% improvement in first time quality between desktop and Augmented Reality modes, with AR reducing time to build the wing by around 30%. Researchers also found that when instructions are presented with Augmented Reality, people gain a faster understanding and need less convincing of the correctness of tasks.

Bottom line is that this study shows and quantifies how complex tasks performed for the first time can benefit from Augmented Reality work instructions. If the task is done with fewer errors and faster, the impact on productivity is highly significant.

Where can Augmented Reality make an impact in your organization?

This article originally appeared in the AERTEC Solutions blog.

Contrary to what many people believe, the aeronautical industry is today heavily reliant on the human factor. Craftsmanship prevails in a process that produces large machines—namely aircraft—containing thousands of parts and involving disparate tasks that converge on the manufacturing of a few dozen units a month in the best of cases.

In reality, this figure is minuscule if we compare it to the automobile industry, where we can see manufacturing plants churning out an average of 50 vehicles per hour. This production volume and the larger number of parts and repetitive tasks it involves allow for significant cost savings as a result of the inclusion of automation processes.

The aeronautical industry is making great strides in incorporating the best knowledge and experience gained in these manufacturing sectors and including them for its own benefit, along with other more innovative technologies, procedures and concepts.

This infographic shows some of these concepts, along with others that have already been in use for some time, illustrating what some call Industry 4.0 or the Factory of the Future. We also refer to this as the Augmented Factory due to upcoming human-machine interfaces that integrate human activities into the industrial internet of things.

This post by Dace Campbell previously appeared on the AEC Industry website Beyond Design 

AR: An Extension of Lean

For decades, pundits, prophets, prognosticators, and purveyors of technology have been forecasting the fit of Augmented Reality (AR) for the AEC industry (I know, I’m one of them!) In recent years, as hardware evolves, and BIM matures, we find ourselves on the threshold of AR solutions being truly capable of extending capabilities for architects, contractors, and owners.

Autodesk is no stranger to AR, and we continue to keep an eye on the technology, looking for the right solutions for our customers. We’ve defined (refined?) AR as the real-time display of spatially contextual information, where context is the physical environment. In today’s world of “big data,” we are seeking out ways to support the industry’s efforts to offer the right information and the right materials to the right people, in the right place, at the right time. In manufacturing and construction, we talk about just-in-time (JIT) delivery to support Lean operations and production control. With AR, we extend that conversation beyond Just-in-Time, to Just-in-Place delivery of information. That is, information is served up to the end user in an appropriate, localized, specific spatial context.

Is AR Ready for You?

I recently attended both the Augmented Worlds Expo in Santa Clara, and Autodesk’s NAC3 (North American Construction Customer Council) hosted by DAQRI in Los Angeles. At both events, you could all but taste the anticipation of AR solutions made ready for the AEC industry. The evolution of hardware sensors and processors, wearable form factors, and software development toolkits has bred a diverse range of AR solutions for businesses and consumers alike. DAQRI, in particular, is now offering their Smart Helmet, with a world of potential to disrupt the way we consume and process information on the construction site. On the low end, 3D-printed lenses can be clipped to your smart-phone to support immersive viewing of spatially contextual information for as little as $20!

No AR solution on the market today is without its flaws, and there is plenty of room for improvement when applying AR in AEC, such as: support for collaborative decision-making, hands-free tasks, balancing task-focus and safety, and application in harsh environmental conditions. But there are a lot of things to like about what solutions are here and on their way as technology continues to get better.

AEC Use Cases for AR

At Autodesk, we’ve identified over a dozen use cases for AR in design, construction, and facilities operations and maintenance. We’ve analyzed these according to the business pain points they address, the scope or value of that pain, the potential for integration with our solutions, phase of a project, and level of effort to implement (including user’s motion area, indoor/outdoor mix, scene preparation, tracking accuracy required, display latency allowed, see-through requirements, and data-serving burden).

We’ve also asked ourselves: in which of these uses cases is AR a truly unique solution, as opposed to alternative ways to solve the problem? That is: where is AR desirable, and perhaps even necessary, to eliminate specific industry pains by applying its unique characteristics?

Overlay and Compare

A skeptic can reasonably argue that, while beneficial, AR isn’t a unique or necessary solution in almost all AEC use cases. However, one condition keeps coming up over and over again, where AR can truly and uniquely solve a problem, save valuable time, and improve confidence in decision-making: real-time overlay of information onto the real world to support comparison (and contrast).

To illustrate this, think of these cartoon sketches, in which you are tasked to identify the subtle differences between them, and think of how dramatically the process could be improved simply by overlaying one image over the other in a single display:

Can you spot the 8 differences?

Overlay the images into a single display to easily identify the differences!

Sweet Spots for AR in AEC

We perform this comparison exercise again and again in design, construction, and operations – except in AEC it’s much harder than the challenge shown in the cartoon example above. In some cases, the question isn’t simply: “can you spot the 8 differences?” Rather, it’s: “Are there any differences? If so, where? And, how many are there (and how do you correct them)?”

With this condition applied as a filter to the long list of potential AEC uses cases, just a few rise to the top: the ones in which we need to perform compare and contrast tasks in quickly and accurately. In gross terms, they exist where the real world (as-is conditions), the Building Information Model (intended conditions), and the newly constructed world (as-built conditions) each intersect with the other, as shown here:

There are three intersections between these realms. Architects deal with the intersection between “as-is” and “intended” when visualizing their designs in/at the project site. Think of AR here as a real-time, interactive, “photo-match” for studying and communicating a design in context. Next, contractors face the comparison between the “intended” design and the “as-built” project, both when performing layout on the site and again when performing quality control to confirm that their work was installed or assembled correctly (see also: Capture Reality, Recapture Time). Finally, owners contend with the overlap between the “as-built” documentation and the true “as-is” world of the facility in operations. Here, they seek to supplement their experience of the living project with meta-data and systems hidden or enclosed by architectural finishes.

In all of these cases, the key project stakeholders look for a solution in which they can view virtual data overlaid on the physical world, intuitively and in real time, to compare and contrast new and old, desired and actual, recorded and reality.

Serving up the proper information in context is key, both just-in-time and just-in-place. After all, there is a time – and a place – for everything.