XR in Manufacturing: Considerations from Industry Professionals

Extended reality (XR) and Virtual Reality (VR) for manufacturing presents tangible opportunities for enhancing efficiency and reducing costs. Below, we'll highlight how practical applications of XR technology in this sector offer insights into its potential benefits and security considerations. We have interviewed real-world professionals to provide examples and analysis of how XR reshapes manufacturing landscapes and offers actionable solutions for businesses aiming to improve operational sustainability.

The Business Case for XR in Manufacturing

Reducing Costs

A recent VIVE survey reveals that 75% of manufacturing professionals report clear ROI from XR, noting significant reductions in material waste, time, and costs. Despite the initial investment in XR devices, the technology substantially lowers both capital and operating expenses across training, collaboration, design, and prototyping, ultimately saving money.

Using designing in XR for an example. By allowing designers to test out the feasibility of their designs in a virtual space before manufacturing begins, XR creates the possibility of finding errors or complications that would not have otherwise represented themselves in advance. This saves time and money, as those complications would have previously involved remanufacturing a product or scrapping it altogether.

Industry professionals are already taking note. Gabe Paez, Head of Product, XR at Autodesk, is a huge proponent. Citing one example of how designing with XR can help identify critical issues.

"Say your hand needs to go through an access hole to maintain something, but it actually is not large enough to fit an arm inside of it. These types of things happen all the time and the reality is they don't get caught until they're on-site, and so the downstream cost of correcting them once you realize it is enormous."

In addition to the potential for cost savings in manufacturing and design, XR presents opportunities to save money on travel and meeting costs. It does this by allowing team members to collaborate with prototypes remotely in virtual spaces. 

"Virtual reality is saying, 'How can we actually create a better byproduct of a meeting than is possible if you travel to a place and meet inside of that building,’" says Paez. "So it's not just about the cost of getting there. It's about the quality of the interaction once you are there."

Paez also says the benefits of face-to-face meetings are inarguable. From building connections outside of meetings to sharing work products inside of one. Yet the experience of attending one can be limited by the technology used to present and share materials. 

"A conventional in-person meeting often falls short in quality due to the limitations of examining a design rendering on a 2D screen. However, when exploring the same design in VR, the experience mirrors that of physically visiting the final building or participating in a design review. Through an immersive approach you get the confidence that all stakeholders are aligned on exactly what is being created," he says.

XR allows meeting attendees, whether in a shared real-world space or attending remotely, to view fully rendered 3D materials that can be manipulated and interacted with in ways that 2D printouts and projections on a screen cannot.  

Improved Worker Safety

Although increased safety investment and regulations have made manufacturing less hazardous, there is still a potential for on-the-job injuries. XR can reduce that risk by allowing site managers to virtually examine the factory floor for any potential sources of danger. It can enable operators to test out any additions to the floor ahead of time in a virtual space to learn how they will impact workflow and safety as well. In fact, more than 9 in 10 professionals who currently use XR felt safer on the job after going through an XR-simulated environment.

Christian Hergt, Product Owner for Simulation and Resources at BSH Home Appliances Group, explains how he uses XR to examine a factory floor. "We can create the path," says Hergt. “We record it, evaluate it, and then see how it needs to be created or changed." 

Using XR engineers can simulate everyday tasks on a factory floor, such as the action of presses and the maneuvering of robots. This allows engineers to safely go where they could never go in the real environment. They can also simulate the steps a person takes when using a machine and redesign the machine virtually to maximize the efficiency of that process. That leads to improved safety and more opportunities for identifying potential problems before they become costly accidents.

Uses of XR in Manufacturing

Given these benefits it makes sense that businesses are readily adopting XR in manufacturing. While use cases vary and are continually expanding, there are four main areas where VR for manufacturing is driving an impact. 

XR for Design

XR can transform product design by allowing users to view and interact with the design in a virtual space. This enables designers to collaborate on a virtual 3D model imported from CAD (computer-aided design) drawings before proceeding with the costly prototyping step.

 "People check the design of the product and disassemble, assemble, and see if it is feasible," says Hergt. "So they think about it in the CAD, and they model the product, but they also need to see if it can be assembled. Then they bring that feedback back to the engine. In VR, you can do it in a much more intuitive way."

"XR takes the best of what we can do virtually with data and data sharing and the best of what we can do physically in a room together as humans, and it puts it into one space where we can actually deliver incredible value from both," says Paez.

XR Prototyping

The prototyping phase is where designs move into the physical world. It's a chance to discover if a given design is feasible and how well it interacts with other design elements.

Traditional methods involve creating multiple prototypes, testing them, and refining them. XR technology dramatically accelerates this process.

Prototyping is now easier than ever. Engineers can migrate a digital design into a virtual environment and rapidly test its real-world functionality, exposing potential flaws, as well as failure points, quickly.

"Classically, they bring the machine, they realize it doesn't work, and then they rework. And this is where the money is burnt," says Hergt. "But with XR, you can make a mistake in a virtual way or you can find the best combination that wouldn't be possible in the classical way. It would be only possible with this technology. We think the time to market is really faster with technologies like this."

"Currently, we're really evaluating ideas from start to finish at the speed of construction rather than the speed of thought," says Paez. "We need to be moving more toward the angle of shortening the iterative loop from 'How quickly can I build this to try it?' to 'How quickly can I take my idea and try it?' This is the opportunity we have with XR."

Digital Twins in Manufacturing

Digital twins can be an essential tool in manufacturing. They allow engineers to create a replica of a facility or machine in the virtual world that operates identically to how the real thing operates in the physical world. Digital twins can simulate almost any device, machine, or installation. Companies like Boeing, Rolls-Royce, and even the NFL use digital twins to model and maintain their equipment.

In manufacturing digital twins help companies manage complex facilities where the interactions of many different systems, machines, personnel, and even robots would be difficult or impossible to operate in any other way. 

"You have so many complex interactions," says Paez. "You have machinery. You've got the building itself. You've got all of the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) going to different locations, and usually they're hidden behind walls. And so how do we create a digital twin which basically makes the invisible visible within a structure and all the machinery inside of it? The value of [VR] is that it removes all the guesswork."

A digital twin is more than just a set of digital blueprints. The twin can be set up to receive data from sensors all over a machine or installation, gathering real-time information about how it operates. The trick is how to render and then interpret that data.

"You have so many sensors coming off of these facilities that allow you to understand all that data in a way that you can make meaningful decisions," says Paez. "Not just monitoring it but making decisions about that data is incredibly valuable. The VR angle of this is that it's not just about having the digital twin. It's not just about having all the data. It's about providing some way to experience all of this data in a way that you can understand and make decisions on it."

With VR engineers can create an interface that displays all of the sensor data in a way that allows operators to make sense of it.

"You can understand it through graphs and charts. You can understand it in plans. You can understand it on screens, but there's no substitute for understanding it on the floor itself," says Paez. "We're humans. We're spatial creatures, and there's nothing like experiencing all of this different data coming off of a digital twin to understand and identify problems and then ideate around potential solutions."

XR Training in Manufacturing

Manufacturing environments can be complicated and potentially dangerous. Training new employees on the job risks opening them up to potentially unsafe situations. New employees need the opportunity to make mistakes in a safe environment. XR provides that opportunity. 

Companies like BMW, DB Shenker, and Airbus utilize XR for training, granting employees "hands-on" experience without exposing them to risks and potential liabilities associated with physical equipment.

At Audi, software engineers using HTC VIVE and an SDK development kit have faithfully recreated a parts-picking station in great virtual detail. Employees are trained on this station using the HTC VIVE headset using over 20 different training courses. As employees move through each course they are assigned points and can "level up." 

Audi says this gamification of training has become increasingly popular with employees, has reduced training costs, and has increased efficiency. According to Paez, this increased efficiency is part and parcel of working with XR. 

"With a lot of our design tools, like current non-XR design and review tools, just understanding how to navigate requires a certain level of training and expertise," he says. "XR is amazing for this because it's so easy just to train someone."

Privacy and Security Considerations

Security

With all the benefits of using XR in manufacturing it's worth considering one of the potential liabilities: security. XR headsets are, for many companies, new technologies, and with any new technology comes an opportunity for security risks.

Most companies will have already addressed the typical security issues related to connected devices, but XR presents new challenges. Specifically, the devices can "see." For some companies and employees, that's a problem.

"Potentially, people are going to be concerned where they've got this device that's seeing all the things that they're seeing," says Mark Sage, Executive Director of Area (AR for Enterprise Alliance). "So is it now trying to measure how much they're doing, how quickly they're doing it, and what they're actually doing almost every minute of the day if they have these devices on for a long period of time?"

Still, Sage cautions that XR devices aren't inherently evil. They should, in essence, be treated as "just another device" while developing standards and practices that address their unique capabilities.

"Because it's new, that doesn't mean that we should be totally concerned about it," he says. "We're still at the start of the journey. So the development of standards and best practices and even just outlines are still pretty new. So we're definitely trying to understand the security risks and provide some content to do that."

Some XR headset manufacturers have "free rein" on what data they collect and see their headset as a gateway to the metaverse, controlling the data that flows in and out. VIVE takes a different approach by ensuring development standards start by ensuring that customer privacy rights are respected and upheld. This is accomplished by adhering to internationally recognized privacy standards and regulations—such as ISO27001, BS10012, and BSIMM certifications. They’re stringent standards set forth by Section 889 and previous attainment of Authority to Operate (ATO) certifications for secure federal environments.

Data privacy

One of the most critical security aspects of XR is data privacy. These devices come equipped with many cameras. Wearing one at a facility where companies have proprietary processes or designs could pose the risk of the device capturing images of things a company might not want to share.

Devices that rely on an internet connection to an external account for their functioning pose a significant risk to data security. HTC VIVE designs products to mitigate this risk by not sharing captured data with external sources. Instead, all data remains on the device for enhanced security.

"What I really, really appreciate about HTC is that they say the product is the product," says Hergt, referring to HTC's policy of not farming data from their devices. "The customer is not the product."

Companies using XR in manufacturing need to consider data management, including transmission and storage. To protect sensitive information, they may need enhanced data security measures. HTC VIVE sets a benchmark for data privacy, using encrypted partition cameras and requiring user authorization in mixed-reality settings.

Multiple Users

One of the challenges companies face when integrating XR is that because of the cost of the devices, the company might not have a separate device for each user. That means sign-on will be at the device level, not the user level. 

"So, in theory, you could have two, three, or more people using the device and collecting data," says Sage. "If there's any kind of data leak or data privacy issues, who was it?"

Tracking misuse or data leaks becomes problematic when you don't always know who uses what device. A code that allows different users to sign on to specific devices can mitigate that, but a company needs to be aware of potential risks.

"These workarounds are something we're seeing more and more because companies are concerned about data privacy," Sage says. "At the end of the day, I think it's down to the company to manage that and understand what the potential challenges are and to develop solutions."

Those that are looking for alternatives to managing fleets turn to platform agnostic management devices such as ManageXR or ArborXR. Another alternative is VIVE Business+, which allows users to manage and control your fleet of standalone headsets.

Policies

Most companies adopting VR should establish clear security policies and educate employees on the importance of adhering to them. This can help safeguard against the risks and, at the very least, spell them out so that employees are aware.

All of this begins, according to Sage, with assessing the risks in the first place. 

"If we take a company whose IP is the design of something like making submarines or satellites, then the security is really important," he says. "But for other kinds of companies, there needs to be some sort of clear risk assessment."

The types of security risks and policies required to address them will vary depending on the company and the kind of business. Sage cautions that companies should be aware of, but also realistic about, what those risks actually are.

"I think because people naturally see this device that's capturing a whole bunch of information, they straightaway see it as a security risk," he says. "But when they're actually using it within their environment and doing particular use cases, there may not be such a risk. So it's very much the risk assessment kind of business angle that we need to drive more and get an understanding of that."

VIVE ensures the protection of sensitive information by ensuring stringent access controls and safeguarding personal data from unauthorized access by VIVE or third-party applications. 

Conclusion

Ultimately, the success of XR in manufacturing settings will depend on how thoroughly companies adopt the technology. It will also be decided by how aggressive they are about establishing boundaries and developing protocols. Just as with the assembly line before it, XR presents opportunities for those companies willing to take advantage of it. The difference is that the benefits of XR might need more explanation for buy-in.

"It's quite tricky to explain XR, AR, and VR without getting people into the devices," says Hergt. "If you take a screenshot of [a VR display], it doesn't look impressive. Once you put the headsets on though, you can feel that this is another environment, this is another reality."

Paez suggests that companies should be realistic when anticipating their adoption rates and the impact of XR, at least initially.

"When anything is possible it gets really easy to defocus and try to create an overall expectation that overnight you're gonna be working all day in VR tomorrow and that's just not realistic," he says. "Any team of a significant size is gonna have a real mix of people who get VR and understand the value of it, and people who are very skeptical."

"Let's be honest, a lot of companies are so far behind in terms of their technology rollout and digitization," says Sage. "I've been to a factory where they're rolling a Windows 3.2 computer or 3.5 computer up and down with the biggest LAN cable you've ever seen and the biggest power cable and start clicking on a keyboard to look at diagrams. That can sometimes be the starting point of their technology journey. So, it's a big step for them to get into XR. We just need to understand that that's the path they take and help them in each step." 

XR in manufacturing continues to evolve. Companies that adopt XR are not only implementing new technology but are applying their own methodologies and learnings, expanding the technology's potential. As Sage says, “VR is just getting started.”

"We're literally at the tip of the iceberg at the moment," he says. "Some companies are getting it and show us some great return on investment, but we still have a challenge and an opportunity to get to the bottom of the iceberg to make sure they understand what problems can be solved using XR."

“I think this will connect the whole world in a positive way," says Hergt. "We're at the point that for the first time I really think, 'Okay, wow, this is really happening.”

About HTC VIVE

HTC VIVE is the premier extended reality (XR) platform and ecosystem that creates true-to-life XR experiences for businesses and consumers. The VIVE ecosystem is built around premium XR hardware, software, and content. VIVE Business encompasses best-in-class XR hardware, software, VIVE Business+ (MDM), Location-Based Software Suite (LBSS), VIVE Business Streaming (VBS), and VIVERSE for Business for customers.

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