Insights and trends on augmented reality and advanced manufacturing technology

How AR Technology Aids Job Creation in Manufacturing

In the not so distant past, many factories transformed from bustling displays of human ingenuity to almost fully automated production lines of steel and wire manned by robots. However, there has been a recent trend in manufacturing that is returning manufacturing jobs to human hands.

Consumer pressures for a wider variety of choices are driving product variation to new heights, and there is a corresponding need for a key advantage humans have over their automated counterparts: flexibility. The human ability to think critically and adapt to changing circumstances on the fly is beneficial in an environment where near infinite variations of certain products make it logistically or economically impractical for robots to perform tasks with a similar degree of customization.

Iconic global brands like Mercedes-Benz have taken significant steps in this direction, replacing some large manufacturing robots with human operators. The notion that “Mercedes-Benz is firing robots,” as one article put it, highlights larger issues of automation and the longer-term implications for the job market.

As a member of the Forbes Tech Council, our founder and CEO, Paul Ryznar, discusses how new and emerging Industry 4.0 technologies, like augmented reality, are driving a new era of man and machine collaboration. Read the full article here.

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Brian Close

Brian Close

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