Even before the unemployment rate reached historic lows, there has been a skill gap in the manufacturing industry. A widening skills gap, economic growth, and retiring workers are all significant reasons. The jobs with the biggest effects on performance are generally the toughest to fill. To expand operations and boost production, technical positions such as controls engineers, skilled operators, technicians, and machine operators are essential. Additionally, these are the jobs that demand the most investment and training.
According to a survey by the Economic Times, organizations struggle to obtain skilled labour. A shortage of competent workers affects businesses in industries like manufacturing on average to the tune of 15–30%. Meeting corporate objectives is directly impacted by scarcity. Additionally, as businesses are compelled to set up additional incentives and one-time payments to attract workers, the cost of hiring talent and mobilising resources is on the rise. More than 50% of manufacturers are creating or expanding internal training programmes as a way to overcome the skills gap.
Companies, however, are finding it difficult to cross-train employees quickly enough to reach the kind of workforce flexibility required in today's complex low volume, levels of a quality environment. No manufacturing professional will contest the significance of high-quality training, even though various industries and production settings may have distinct practices and goals. The main concern is how to deliver this training in the best possible way, utilising the finest approaches, resources, and technologies.
One of the ideal ways to provide manufacturing training to workers is to make it more interactive and hands-on Training. Companies often use hands-on or interactive training as an effective teaching strategy to enhance their staff training initiatives.
An interactive learning process is a certain approach to capturing an employee's attention and making a lasting impression rather than subjecting them to a dull text and audio-based presentation that they will likely forget. In addition to helping trainees retain more information, this approach also gives workers a secure and regulated setting in which to put their newfound abilities to use.
How assisted reality and smart glasses as training tool helps.
Programs for internal training are essential for creating the talent that manufacturers require. However, traditional approaches like work shadowing and training manuals are inefficient, time-consuming, and obsolete. Additionally, these approaches fall short of meeting the demands of the four primary learning styles: verbal, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual.
To give deskless workers the pertinent information they need to do their jobs effectively and quickly, assisted reality glasses offer a straightforward heads-up display that does not considerably obstruct the user's field of vision.
Modern training methods are starting to incorporate augmented reality-based solutions significantly as they give interactive, intuitive, and hands-on coaching in real time. Assisted reality is dynamic, interactive, and adaptive, in contrast to conventional paper or monitor-based work instructions, guaranteeing that workers accomplish tasks quickly and accurately.
Advantages of smart glass training
Make training kinesthetics, auditory, and visual.
Give clear, step-by-step visual and spoken directions in real-time.
Assist in determining the right tools and components needed for a task.
Give clear, simple, step-by-step instructions.
Recognize and repair errors along the way, offering immediate feedback.
These new assisted reality devices are flexible, scalable, and adaptable, with integrated audio and visual signals that offer real-world and real-time guidance, pace, and direction.
Because of this, these tools are a perfect fit for training applications that instruct operators on how to use the proper components in the proper order while also gathering detailed data and offering detailed data analytics for trainers and supervisors to review processes and progress more precisely, more efficiently, and in a lot more actionable detail.
Training use cases
On-the-job training
Pain point – In today's low volume, high variety, and increasingly complicated environment, businesses are finding it challenging to cross-train employees and achieve the kind of labour flexibility required. An ageing workforce and the rapidly retiring "boomer" generation are problems for businesses.
Possible Solution – Our work instructions-based software is easily accessible, which speeds up training and enhances ongoing job performance. Encourages cross-training and develops people's skills so they may transition between employment with ease. Enables training to be standardised and made far more reliable.
Value Added – Cut training time by up to 70% while raising operator performance and skill levels. Instantly boost new workers' productivity by eliminating the need for them to go back and forth between computer workstations to review processes or browse through binders of paper-based job instructions.
Efficient training programs
Pain Point – Operators are not adequately trained because of ineffective training tools, both in terms of their content and delivery. Training is not very consistent because it is carried out by various individuals in various ways.
Possible Solution –Keeps track of how long a trainee spends on each task in a work instruction and lets you take pictures or videos to evaluate the learner's performance.
Value added – Instead of experienced staff sacrificing hours of productivity educating others, allow new employees to self-train. Employ fresh personnel on your production line as data collectors as well as productive workers.
Setting a benchmark with consistency
Pain Point – Not capturing the "technical knowledge" and best practices available to senior workers before they retire will cause the skills gap between new hires and experienced workers to widen.
Possible Solution –By enabling experienced workers to record their procedures and best practices (often known as "tips & tricks"), helps close the growing skills gap by enhancing the knowledge of the new and less experienced staff.
Value added – To aid in preparing the following generation of manufacturing workers, capture the "tacit knowledge" already present inexperienced workers.
Return of Investment
Smart glasses and augmented reality are two examples of cutting-edge technologies that have an enormous impact on people's productivity. Naturally, the particular situation and use case will determine the costs, advantages, and returns.
According to our research, it takes new operators an average of 18 days of training to become completely productive, and some tasks take much longer. Our customer has been able to cut the time needed to teach new staff by between 50 and 70 per cent by employing smart glasses for operator and inspector training.
A 75% reduction in training time and a 25% decrease in quality faults using digital work instructions on smart glasses could result in an increase in operating profit during the training period.
Let's wrap up
We help manufacturers digitalize their processes, with a particular emphasis on enhancing their production execution systems. We assist businesses in navigating the intricate and quickly changing world of "smart manufacturing" and the Industrial Internet of Things. To choose and deploy industry 4.0 technologies that will best support our client's most important business activities and the people who carry them out, we provide advice, tools, and hands-on support.
Explore how wearable-assisted reality solutions can help businesses succeed. Connect with us. It is possible to exchange multiple use cases and best practices. Follow our hashtag - #dxsolutionadvisor on LinkedIn and follow our page in the meantime.
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