North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event heads to Orange County Convention Center in October 2024. FABTECH provides a convenient "one stop shop" venue where you can meet with world-class suppliers, see the latest industry products and developments, and find the tools to improve productivity, increase profits and discover new solutions to all of your metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing needs.
North America's Largest Metal Forming, Fabricating, Welding and Finishing Event
Industry 4.0 is here. New technologies like automation, block-chain, IoT, machine learning, and robotics have transformed the factory floor. These advances have changed the way we create, build, and distribute assets across the world, making the supply chain more efficient and faster than ever before.
Yet there’s one major hurdle manufacturers must overcome to thrive in this new digital reality – a shortage of skilled labor.
In an industry where time is of the essence, an aging workforce coupled with low retention and an ever-shrinking talent pool is impacting productivity, and most importantly, the bottom-line. To be more effective, profitable, and productive, manufacturers must change their approach to workforce development. They are searching for more effective training solutions that equip their workforce with the necessary skill sets – quickly and efficiently – within their training budgets.
One of the top emerging solutions? Virtual Reality (VR) training.
Making the Case for VR Training
With so much technological advancement afoot, it makes logical sense that VR is in the mix. Unlike traditional methods of workforce development, such as manuals and e-learning modules, VR training provides the opportunity for the user to gain hands-on experience at a lesser cost and with greater results. In fact, most companies already have an entry point for VR through CAD and 3D modeling technology, allowing businesses to use/integrate them to build their virtual environments.
Companies like Delta are using VR to train their ramp employees on aircraft walk-arounds, UPS is using it to train their drivers, and Ford Motor has incorporated VR as part of the design process to save time and money on expensive iterations. And the demand for VR is expected to continue. By 2022, IDC Worldwide predicts that VR will generate $162 billion in combined sales with AR by 2022. That’s a tremendous increase from $5.2 billion in 2016.
While the benefits of VR are numerous, there are four (4) top benefits manufacturers can expect from VR training, and they are:Bridging the Skill Set Gap
As baby boomers retire, they take with them a wealth of information that the upcoming generations lack. However, the talent gaps go beyond this change in dynamics. The industry itself is also struggling to recruit younger professionals who have the needed technical skills to operate in the manufacturing plant of tomorrow. All of which leads to a decrease in productivity and rising costs as job posts go unanswered.
To address these challenges, companies are utilizing VR to capture the knowledge being left behind by the boomers to immediately create training materials that can develop the next generation of professionals. Not only does this ensure the survival of tribal knowledge amassed by the boomer generation, but it also opens the door to training young employees remotely.
Experienced engineers can use VR to enter a virtual space where they can meet with a trainee or answer questions on the job as needed. Likewise, the use of VR training makes manufacturing companies more attractive as employers to millennials by using the technology as a recruiting tool. It subverts the image of manufacturing as a loud and dirty industry into what has become – an industry on the cutting edge.
Reduced Time to Competency
By placing workers in a virtual environment where they can confront situations that are difficult to replicate in the real world, you build workers’ confidence to navigate similar situations in real life effectively. Through VR training, employees can practice how to deal with critical issues (i.e. a chemical leak or explosion) and learn the appropriate response for each scenario. This results in a safer work environment and reduces the chance of man-made errors that significantly impact both employee safety and the company’s bottom line.
In a recent study by the University of Maryland, it was found that users who trained with VR had a 90.48 percent higher recall of the information presented compared to 78.57 percent with computer-based training . The implications are monumental, specifically in a process-oriented industry where having near-perfect recall of procedures and training is instrumental in ensuring organizational productivity. In a study conducted by the Energy Safety institute at the University of Houston illustrates this point. When properly implemented, VR training can generate a diminishing trend of accidents by 12 percent – an immense value for manufacturers.
Increased Employee Engagement and Retention
VR increases employee engagement by transporting the user into an immersive environment where they are in control of the story and the narrative being told. As a result, they are better able to retain information by working at their own pace and in their preferred learning style. In a joint study conducted by Nielsen and YuMe, it was found that those who utilized VR as a training method were 34 percent more engaged with VR than with 2-D technology and reported a 27 percent higher retention.
Not only is VR training customizable to each individual learning track, but it also makes it easier to create a career road-map for employees. This incentivizes the worker by showing them that the company is invested in their career development, which increases employee loyalty and retention.
Lowered Financial Impact
Because VR allows you to train in a virtual environment, manufacturers no longer have to remove a machine from service to provide hands-on training to workers. This reduces the costs associated with equipment downtime and wear and tear on the machines. In fact, VR training has shown over a 33% cost savings versus traditional training methods
But costs-savings can be realized beyond just equipment sourcing for training purposes. Unlike traditional learning methods, VR training has a longer shelf-life as the software used can be upgraded over time. Like video games, incremental updates can be implemented on the system. Additionally, VR training’s scalability provides additional cost saving opportunities by lowering travel expenses. The ability to gather people across multiple locations in place is especially beneficial for manufacturers with global operations.
The Takeaway
The message is loud and clear. For manufacturers to remain competitive now and the foreseeable future, they must address the talent shortage gap or up-skill their current workforce. VR, with its ability to scale across the organization, safely train for dangerous situations, connect workers with remote experts in virtual environments, and provide hands-on training on equipment without impacting daily operations is the missing link that manufacturers need to successfully transform their organization to meet the demands of this new digital world.
Hear more from Dave at his education session at FABTECH: “Scale Your Workforce Training Using Virtual Reality”.Register now to attend FABTECH 2019!
FABTECH 2024
About the Expo
North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event heads to Orange County Convention Center in October 2024. FABTECH provides a convenient "one stop shop" venue where you can meet with world-class suppliers, see the latest industry products and developments, and find the tools to improve productivity, increase profits and discover new solutions to all of your metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing needs.
