{"id":11286,"date":"2018-01-29T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T19:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/01\/29\/news-5057\/"},"modified":"2018-01-29T11:00:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T19:00:14","slug":"news-5057","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/01\/29\/news-5057\/","title":{"rendered":"Augmented Reality in the Chemical Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Kim Custeau| Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:17:26 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the third blog in a four-part series on digital transformation in the chemical industry, check out the first blog “Chemical Companies Deliver Outstanding Customer Experiences Through Digital Transformation”<\/a>\u00a0and the second post “5 Benefits of Digital Transformation in Chemical Manufacturing”<\/a>.\u00a0 Next week will be the finale of the series – predictive analytics in chemical manufacturing.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of hype around technology buzzwords related to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industrie 4.0. And a lot of them hold a great deal of promise in delivering true digital transformation<\/a> of traditional industry and business operations. Today, I hear continual chatter about augmented reality. And while I have seen a few highly produced (translate that as completely staged if you prefer) demos of so called digital twin<\/a> and augmented reality technology, a lot of what\u2019s being demonstrated today simply fails to deliver on the tangible value that customers need to see to justify investment in new technology. But I assure you, augmented reality<\/a> is a technology worth investigation and investment. And there are commercially available off-the-shelf solutions that can be implemented almost immediately with little to no custom software development.<\/p>\n

While fancy graphics, holographic 3D technology, and wind turbines that text you if they\u2019re on fire may look flashy during pre-recorded demos for press and industry analysts, I fear some vendors may have simply missed the mark when it comes to actually helping their customers run their enterprise more efficiently and profitably. I think the overarching problem is that a lot of augmented reality technology was developed without understanding the use case. In other words, good business justifications do not come from the \u201ccool factor\u201d. Executives build good business justifications on dollars and cents return on investment. The sooner and less painfully the company realizes that return, the better.<\/p>\n

So with that said, let\u2019s take a step back and try to understand the real value proposition of augmented reality. I’ll address how and where it\u2019s actually an applicable technology in manufacturing today. More specifically, let\u2019s look at the chemical manufacturing industry. And as we do that let\u2019s be sure to use a practical perspective as opposed to a theoretical approach.<\/p>\n

\"See<\/a> <\/p>\n

Read our whitepaper<\/a> to discover how augmented reality can help chemical manufacturers develop more agile business models<\/em><\/p>\n

Building Augmented Reality on Mobile Technology<\/h4>\n

Asking users to completely modify the operational tasks they\u2019re familiar with overnight is a recipe for failed technology adoption. A key role of technology in the modern, and increasingly millennial workforce is to serve up useful information from many sources into an experience that workers are comfortable with. No matter their generation, workers should be empowered with technology<\/a> that serves up content in a way that enables them to make the right decision without necessarily having 30 years of experience to validate their decision<\/p>\n

A more fruitful approach to adopting new technology is to start with a foundational technology that people already understand. For example, what about using mobile technology that people already use in their daily routine as a basis for augmented reality?<\/p>\n

Rather than trying to transition users and operators to an entirely new way of performing their job duties through augmented reality goggles, start small. Begin by enabling operators in chemical manufacturing plants to perform maintenance rounds using mobile technology, like smartphones and tablets.<\/p>\n