The need for digitization and keeping workers connected became crystal clear for many. in 2020. While this is true in all industries, industrial markets felt this even more due to workflow complexity, knowledge retention and share, and the financial impact from downtime and other inefficiencies.
As a result, the industrial market will quicken its adoption of Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses and mobile devices to enable workers in any location and minimize costly inefficiencies. This increasing adoption will generate an industrial augmented reality market value of US$70 billion by 2025m according to ABI Research.
“COVID-19 did not create the need for digitization, but it certainly accelerated it,” says Eric Abbruzzese, Augmented and Virtual Reality Research Director at ABI Research. “As a high-value element of digitization, augmented reality adds a visual element to a data-heavy system that can sometimes devalue the human worker. AR brings the worker back into the equation and creates a synergistic relationship between worker and IT/OT systems where each component benefits from the other.”
ABI Research estimates over 15 million smart glasses devices will be used in industrial workflows found in manufacturing, transportation/automotive, AEC, energy & utilities, and logistics.
The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for industrial only further highlight how beneficial AR can be. Downtime is one of the most severe KPIs in terms of lost productivity and revenue. In the automotive industry, for example, $30,000 per minute of unplanned downtime is possible—large automakers can average one vehicle produced per minute.
AR can help reduce unplanned downtime through more efficient maintenance with analytics, error-reducing task guidance and verification and, when necessary, remote expertise. AR can also reduce planned downtime through similar means. The impact of an aging workforce—a more nebulous but equally important metric—can also be reduced through the knowledge capture capabilities of AR.
Industrial environments create a perfect storm of variables and needs for augmented reality to address and fill. “High complexity leads to severe downtime and cost inefficiency, which AR can lessen. Training and knowledge share are critical due to that complexity, and AR can enhance training efficacy and retention while also being used to capture, share, and view that knowledge. Integration into important platforms like IoT, PLM, ERP, and WMS enables a two-way benefit, where AR can improve those systems and those systems feed data to improve AR. All components working together can be a challenge, but the return grows exponentially,” concludes Abbruzzese.
