In the long run, digital reality will completely revolutionize most of our daily activities introducing VR digital training, AR customer experience or MR maintenance operations. The diagram below highlights the importance of DR in the value chain of the factory of tomorrow.
DR innovations fall within a more global technological revolution: the transition from the traditional activities, as they exist today, to the digitalized activities. Consequently, the adoption of DR technologies must be supported by complementary technologies such as the Internet of Things (“IoT”) or Big Data & Analytics.
The diagram illustrates the strong correlation among DR technologies, wearables, IoT and big data & analytics. This must be thought as a single digital ecosystem, where wearables and related technologies act together to improve service levels and enable mass-adoption:
- Fully connected workforce - employees work their best when they have immediate access to information and colleagues. In fact, wearables create a bridge by transferring information directly to workers. The quality level delivered by wearable devices cannot be achieved with phones, tablets and PCs;
- Data on the go - workers universally express their need for tools to help them the right tasks at the right moment. The interaction between big data & analytics and wearables will give all the correct information at the right moment in order to operate machinery, use tools or move materials;
- Digital people platform - enhancing human skills with on-demand information from big data & analytics and smart machines (IoT) will exponentially improve the contribution made by the vast hands-on workforce. In these circumstances, workers will have new tools, fewer frustrations, more flexibility while businesses will see dramatic improvements in productivity, quality and gain of time;
- Browser for the industrial internet - the environment is becoming increasingly smart. In fact, IoT devices, smart tools and connected machines are part of the products and factories of the future. Workers are surrounding by it and wearables are increasingly becoming the first interface into these digital factories and products.