Bits and Atoms in manufacturing

Roberto Saracco July 23, 2017 Blog 346 Views

Google Glass at work… Although they have faded away from the consumer market they are getting more and more used by enterprises. Credit: Google

Google stop selling its Glass in 2015 after a slow uptake in the mass market and many concerns on privacy violation to the point that several establishments forbid entrance to people wearing them.

However Google Glass has found a good (and broad) niche in the enterprise world. Several companies, like GE, Boeing, DHL are using them as “normal” tools. At AGCO use of Google Glass has resulted in a 25% of increased productivity (see clip) whilst DHL estimates an in crease in productivity up to 15%. Just few days ago Google announced a new version of their Google Glass specifically designed for enterprise use.

I found interesting the latitude of application for Google Glass, from manufacturing, to agriculture, from logistics to health care and many more.

It shows that we are moving towards a world in which atoms and bits are used hand in hand, Google Glass being a good tool for delivering Augmented Reality, that is the fusion of atoms and bits.

Manufacturing is already taking advantage of this fusion and Industry 4.0, on the horizon, will push even further this fusion. The softwarization of products is also happening at the manufacturing plant with software playing a major role in the manufacturing process. The possibility of visualising, in a way, this software side of product through AR is an important factor in production and functional testing of products.

Besides, with the growing design and simulation taking place in the virtual space and the need for several companies to cooperate in the production process the possibility to visualise a component providing a physical perception goes a long way in simplifying interactions among different teams.