Green Manufacturers Are Discovering the Merits of Augmented Reality

Seventy-one percent of manufacturers have a sustainability plan in place. New technology like augmented reality can help them.

We often debate the role of technology in the field of sustainability. There is no disputing the fact that new advances in technology have led to the use of more energy, which is obviously continuing to have a terrible impact on the environment.

However, new technology can also be advantageous in the fight against environmental problems like the loss of natural resources and climate change in other ways. It can offer newer, more efficient ways to solve existing problems. This can lead to more energy efficient solutions with lower carbon footprints. It can also help products be more durable, which means that they won’t need to waste as many resources.

One of the new forms of technology that can help manufacturers improve sustainability is augmented reality.

What is augmented reality and how can it help the planet?

Augmented reality is a new form of technology that can offer benefits for the fight against climate change. But before we can discuss the merits of using augmented reality to address environmental issues, we must make sure it is properly defined.

AR, which is also known as augmented reality, is when a virtual world is created that you can interact with and it has similarities to the real world.

In order for the computer to create this environment, it has to use many sensory modalities. Basically, your vision and hearing will be heightened since these are sharpened.

Augmented reality is also combined with artificial intelligence, and this has led to many breakthroughs in a wide range of fields.

AR has greatly improved manufacturing processes. It has made training a lot easier and faster, improved the performance of operators, enhanced throughput and other processes.

At this point, you can possibly see the ways that augmented reality can help mitigate the risks of climate change. Varun Sakhuja published an article in Medium that talked about this.

“Numerous governments are incorporating climate-resilient practices to rethink sustainability. These practices, in turn, seek the prowess of technology such as AR for environmental sustainability. Not only AR but even virtual reality has proven benefits and applications for encouraging sustainability. The question arises; can the all-time popular gaming technologies — AR and VR — go hand-in-hand with sustainability?” Sakhuja argues in his article.

Companies that want to embrace sustainability should invest in the right augmented reality technology. Augmented reality from Aircada.com gives you easy instructions for assembly processes, maintenance, machine setup change over and more.

Thanks to these real time visuals, it helps to decrease the amount of time it takes to understand instructions. This naturally improves worker productivity and safety. We will now take a closer look at how Augmented reality is benefiting the manufacturing sector.

AR Benefits for Sustainable Companies

There are a lot of reasons that sustainable businesses should consider investing in augmented reality. Here are some of them.

1. Avoid wasting natural resources and energy building prototypes by enabling you to make products come to life

Within the manufacturing industry, Augmented reality can be quite useful in the product design phase. This is particularly helpful if the intended new product is a machine. Once Augmented reality is used, this will enable you to have a very clear view of how your new product would actually look once it has been finished.

This is quite helpful if you need investors as it will show them what they’re putting their money into.

This is a clear benefit for eco-friendly manufacturers. They can see how products work without having to waste energy and scarce resources building prototypes.

2. More energy and resource efficient processes

In most cases, the end look of a new product is usually not even known to the employees who are creating it. Once Augmented reality and virtual reality is used, then this will help these employees to become more efficient at development and delivery.

There are many AR companies which have AR and VR solutions that they use for product design. One such company, AUGmentecture, provides a user-friendly AR design platform specifically tailored for architects and interior designers. Also there are many AR and VR solutions that are used for multimedia marketing.

This is another obvious benefit for eco-friendly companies. They can reduce wasted energy and resources, which is essential for sustainability.

3. Makes complex processes simpler

In the manufacturing process, conveyor belts are typically used throughout the different stages. AR is also quite helpful at training new employees since it can easily explain complex processes step by step.

Augmented reality can give easy instructions for assembly along with remote guidance. This will go a long way in reducing errors and increasing productivity.

AR technology that is used to make videos will provide the worker or technician with a clearer view on how to perform a task. AR devices can show step by step instructions that will make assembly a lot easier and faster since the information provided would be accurate and up to date.

This indirectly helps the planet by giving eco-friendly manufacturers a competitive edge. As pointed out in the article The Elusive Green Consumer, eco-friendly businesses often have trouble succeeding. In order to be around long enough to help the planet, they have to be competitive. They can do more good for the planet if they use augmented reality to develop lasting business models.

4. Visualized workflow for simple troubleshooting

Consider if your car broke down on the road and there is no mechanic in sight.

If you had access to AR, then you can simply look at relevant videos and see how to go about fixing your own vehicle.

In the upcoming years, you will definitely notice an increased use of Augmented reality within the manufacturing sector. It truly helps by taking away the need to be at a particular location to solve a problem.

This will help to get problems solved a lot faster, save human resources and lower risk.

5. Lower cost

AR will help to make excellent solutions that will lower the cost of recruitment, infrastructure and training.

Employees will be given the opportunity to solve problems from any location due to easy access to data on the cloud as well as AR and VR applications.

Engineers have already made many multimedia systems and TVs that utilize Augmented reality and Virtual reality.

So, in the next decades, the electronics and manufacturing sector will explode with new devices and technology that utilize combinations of Augmented reality and Virtual reality.

Augmented reality is certainly unprecedented in its ability to make processes much clearer and integrate data. This will help users to easily understand problems, fix them and even prevent them from happening.

Augmented Reality Helps Manufacturers Be Eco-Friendlier

There are a lot of new technological breakthroughs that can help drive sustainability. Augmented reality is one of them. These benefits will help manufacturers reduce their carbon footprint and compete against less environmentally friendly companies.