You might have just recently heard about Augmented or Assisted Reality. (AR) It relates to entertainment, such as games or amusing software.
However, due to the equipment’s time and money-saving advantages, AR equipment is increasingly being targeted towards professionals in the Industrial Metaverse as new developing technologies grow globally.
As technology advances, it becomes more available and affordable. For example, anyone can now get AR equipment for relatively minimal expenditure. And that investment will quickly “pay for itself” as it eliminates more business travel.
The last few years have been a lesson in why meeting face-to-face is crucial for most companies.
Keen to keep their competitive edge, organizations have been quick to get their teams back on the road. The first quarter of 2022 alone saw more corporate travel bookings than half of 2021.
But it’s not easy. Saving money on business travel requires effort from all employees, not just a new top-level approach.
And as the cost of business travel rises, a crucial question is. Could Augmented Reality Be the Solution to Reducing Business Travel Expenses? Let us dig deeper into how augmented reality saves money.
Imagine every trip your employees make in a year. And then consider how many of those trips could be avoided. if you invested in augmented reality (AR) gear to complete the necessary activities remotely.
An exemplar Case Study is Nemco, a Nordic manufacturer of equipment for the food industry, which has installed RealWear-aided reality head-mounted displays so that front-line staff can communicate remotely with the organization’s experts.
Why should every company have an augmented reality strategy?
Augmented reality, a set of technologies that superimpose digital data and images on the physical world, promises to bridge this gap and unleash untapped, uniquely human capabilities. Although still in its infancy, augmented reality is poised to become mainstream; one estimate suggests that spending on augmented reality technology will reach $60 billion by 2021. AR will affect businesses in all sectors and many other types of organisations, from universities to social enterprises. In the coming months and years, it will transform the way we learn, make decisions and interact with the physical world. It will also change the way companies serve their customers, train their employees, design and create products, manage their value chains and, ultimately, the way they compete.
In this article, we describe what AR is, how its technology and applications have evolved, and why it is so important. Its importance will grow exponentially as the consumption of connected products proliferates, as it amplifies its power to create value and reshape competition. AR will become the new interface between humans and machines, bridging the digital and physical worlds. Although challenges remain in deploying it, pioneering organisations such as Amazon, Facebook, General Electric and the U.S. Navy in the U.S., and French companies such as Renault, Naval Groupe, Airbus, Monoprix, Alstom or PSA are already implementing AR and seeing a major impact on quality and productivity. Here we provide a roadmap on how companies should deploy AR and explain the critical choices they will face in integrating it into their strategy and operations.
What is augmented reality?
Isolated applications of AR have existed for decades. But it is only recently that the technologies necessary to exploit its potential have become available. At its core, AR transforms volumes of data and analysis into images or animations. that is then superimposed on the real world. Today, most AR applications are delivered via mobile devices, but increasingly, delivery will be via hands-free wearable devices. such as head-mounted displays or smart glasses. Wearable AR devices for factory workers that overlay production, assembly or service instructions are being tested in thousands of companies. AR is supplementing or replacing traditional manuals and training methods at an ever-increasing rate.
This improves our ability to quickly and accurately absorb information, make decisions, and perform required tasks quickly and efficiently.
Does augmented reality acquire more benefits than just saving money? Let us find out.
We’ve put together a list of clear, useful ways to get your whole team on board.
Benefits of Employing AR Tech in Your Organization:
Timesaving
In smaller companies, fewer employees are likely to handle the workflow. It means that when one employee is absent from the office, even for only one day, a lot of work may be overlooked, neglected, or postponed. While business travel may ultimately be fundamental for meetings, pitches, and site scouting, it may result in immediate losses due to missed work and the loss of an employee’s time.
When using AR for a meeting, an employee stays in the same facility as their office. Even though they are not physically travelling, they have the impression that they are in the same space as their counterpart, whether they are on the same side of the planet or simply down the street. It is impossible to exaggerate the potential of AR.
It can be a plus for small organizations that can’t afford to lose employees for even a single day, let alone several weeks of business travel. Employees can get right back to work after long-distance meetings when they may do so from the office or the comfort of their homes. Less time spent travelling means reduced lost sales or time with clients. Time is money, as we all know.
Cost-Cutting
Augmented Reality is saving money in multiple ways. When a business must pay the trip expenses, in addition to the lost time, there is also a significant cash loss. “Face-to-face” interactions are seen as the pinnacle of authenticity in an increasingly digital environment. In some ways, we’re even going back to favouring in-person conferences over conference calls.
Travel Expenses and Equipment Uptime
The field service business recently evaluated the potential of remote work structure due to the pandemic. Even though AR cannot completely do away with the requirement for service visits, it can make a remote diagnosis and repair possible. It has been demonstrated that eliminating travel time-related delays and giving consumers visual repair instructions can considerably shorten the time of service restoration. Even when they categorize as few-day outages, some are fixable in a matter of minutes. Hence proving that augmented reality saves money as it transforms day-to-day work.
Nemco’s VP of sales stated that due to the wearable technology, Nemco’s workers have been able to receive remote support. This has benefited both the company’s and its clients’ bottom lines. Nemco has recognized the advantages of having a fully aligned workforce. Laying the foundation for the food industry to adopt a new way of working. that maximizes machine uptime and reduces travel costs. Although this new way of working was forced upon us by the travel constraints of the pandemic, it was born out of necessity.
Decrease in Consumer Visits
The cost of business travels to a customer’s site to diagnose and repair equipment is one of the most expensive parts of product support. Travel, fuel, and labour expenditures are all associated with customer visits. The price of purchasing, maintaining, and transporting tools and vehicles is also covered. Businesses frequently swallow a large chunk of their revenues to pay these expenses.
The expenses can be minimized with remote expert AR smart glasses. Thus, proving that while augmented reality saves money, it also drives enterprises to make smart choices. Most of the time, field service professionals conduct their visits while still in the office. They monitor the hardware via a live feed through their chosen software and walk the customer through the procedure in real-time via a wearable device.
Ultimately, saving money on travel is a team effort.
By thinking holistically and uncovering how every employee can help, saving money while still taking all those business-critical trips is possible.
Because it is so realistic and seems like an in-person meeting, augmented and assisted reality is a wonderful substitute for in-person meetings, where neither party has to travel anywhere. It makes teamwork incredibly successful.
Meetings may take place more quickly and easily. Similarly, technicians may complete repair and service activities more quickly and efficiently with the aid of augmented reality-enabled mobile devices and smart eyewear.
Therefore, it can be concluded that it is not just about augmented reality saving money but the plethora of advantages that it offers to industries across the world.
