Extended Reality (XR) in Manufacturing

Extended Reality (XR) in Manufacturing

Westbase XR provides a range of hands-free, wearable solutions, services and support for the manufacturing industry.

Digitisation is a key driving force in manufacturing today, helping organisations to drive efficiencies, increase production and improve safety. Extended Reality (XR) helps to underpin meaningful digitisation efforts, empowering frontline workers with the support and information they need to operate effectively and avoid downtime. With retiring experienced workforces also posing a potential issue, digitisation and XR also provides an accessible and modern platform for knowledge transfer.

Westbase XR supports you, our partner, and your manufacturing customers through design, build and management – delivering an end-to-end approach and blueprint for a successful deployment.

XR Manufacturing Body Image

Extended Reality (XR) in manufacturing can support…

Following the correct processes, while capturing the right information and evidence, is key to maintaining compliance and safety across manufacturing workforces.

Extended Reality can digitise workflows to ensure workers follow every step correctly, while easily documenting what they have completed to ensure compliance isn’t skipped. Technicians can also connect with supervisors via XR devices to video stream a live inspection, increasing compliance and driving efficiencies by not requiring the inspector/supervisor to be physically present.

If and when production is halted due to an issue, downtime can quickly escalate if the on-site technicians don’t know how to resolve it – especially when the expert needed may be in a different county or even country, and can’t get to the factory quickly.

Extended Reality can help to bring the expert to the location virtually though. The on-site employee can share what they are seeing and hearing, then the expert can walk them through resolving the issue enabling faster resolution times and reduced downtime.

Providing workers with access to the latest knowledge, SOPs and other documentation can be challenging. Traditional paper copies can be difficult to use and maintain, damage easily, and often require workers to remove PPE, such as gloves, to be able to use them.

Digitising documentation provides a simple, secure and reliable option, but XR takes this further by also making the documentation available hands-free – meaning no downing of tools or removal of PPE is needed. Using simple hands-free document navigation, workers can access the up-to-date information they need to work effectively. Additionally, digital workflows can also help to increase productivity and accuracy by guiding them through SOPs.

Hands-on experience is key to training new employees in manufacturing, but putting trainees or even junior team members into live situations comes with risk and SOPs can only support them so far.

XR helps manufacturing businesses to tackle this challenge by digitising workflows and training experiences, so that new employees can learn hands-on while accessing documentation, training videos and more. With two-way video calling, trainees can also speak to experts and mentors for additional support, showing them the issue they have and enabling their mentor to walk them through the fix. And because the mentor/expert doesn’t physically have to be present, it also means that they can support more trainees.

Why Westbase XR?

Westbase XR has over thirty years’ experience supporting distributed enterprise – XR may be a new technology but supporting frontline and remote workers is not new to us. Westbase XR gives you access to:

– The industry leaders in Extended Reality, we only work with the best

– Our extensive technology and industry understanding

– Partner services designed to support you where you need it, so you can focus on what you do best

Accelerate and expand your XR opportunities by becoming a Westbase XR partner today.