Field Forward Episode #5: Industrial AR, Now and Future

Welcome to Episode 5 of Field Forward!

🎙️ Host: Cihat Kahraman, CEO and Co-Founder of VSight
🎙️ Guest: Timo Koechel, Managing Partner at Virtualis

This episode delves into the transformative potential of industrial augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), and XR technologies. Learn how these tools are reshaping industries like manufacturing, IoT, and production, while addressing critical challenges such as the skilled workforce gap and the push toward sustainability.

What’s Covered in Episode 5

✅ AR in Industrial Operations:
Explore how AR remote assistance is revolutionizing customer support, reducing downtime, and driving operational efficiency.

✅ AI’s Role in XR Projects:
Learn how generative AI accelerates content creation, improves process optimization, and enhances decision-making in industrial workflows.

✅ Sustainability with XR:
Discover how AR tools minimize travel, waste, and carbon footprints, aligning with global sustainability directives.

✅ Bridging the Skilled Workforce Gap:
Understand how immersive XR training shortens learning curves and prepares employees for modern industrial challenges.

✅ Tailored Solutions for Different Industries:
Insights into how SMEs and large corporations are adopting XR and AR technologies to suit their unique needs.

✅ Future of AR, AI, and XR:
A visionary look at the next five years of technology, including advanced hardware-software integration and predictive maintenance powered by AI.

Why Listen?

💡 This episode is perfect for:

• Field Operations Professionals: Stay ahead with real-world applications of AR and XR in industrial settings.
• Manufacturing Leaders: Discover innovative solutions to tackle operational challenges.
• Sustainability Advocates: Learn how XR technologies reduce travel and waste while boosting productivity.
• Training Managers: Explore how immersive XR training can close skills gaps and prepare employees faster.
• Digital Transformation Enthusiasts: Gain insights into the future of AI and XR innovations.

Quotes from Episode 5

🗨️ Timo Koechel:
“Competence is needed anywhere, anytime. XR technologies help bridge the gap, delivering critical knowledge when it’s needed most.”

🗨️ Cihat Kahraman:
“AI is the middle layer that connects users with actionable insights from past data, unlocking unprecedented efficiency.”

Get Involved!

📣 Share your thoughts or questions! Submit them via the link below to be featured in future episodes.

📌 Submit Questions Here:
➡️ https://www.speakpipe.com/vsight

Follow Us

🔗 #ARRemoteAssistance #FieldForwardPodcast #AIandXR #DigitalTransformation #SustainabilityInIndustry #TrainingInnovation #ConnectedWorker #GenerativeAI

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🌐 VSight Website: https://vsight.io/
🌐 VSight Remote: https://vsight.io/vsight-remote/
🌐 VSight Workflow: https://vsight.io/vsight-workflow/
🌐 VSight VideoFlow: https://vsight.io/vsight-videoflow/

Transcript

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[Music] welcome to field forward the ultimate A2Z podcast for field operation Professionals  in this podcast uh as every week uh and every month we will explore the  latest trends strategies and top tips for optimizing productivity and efficiency  in industrial organizations I am your host Cihat Kahraman uh the CEO and co-founder of VSight in this episode uh of field forward um I'm very very happy uh to host uh managing partner at  virtual virtualis Timo K uh he is with us uh and we will be talking about industrial augmented  reality effects of it um also effects of AI and different use cases and much more joining us Timo  will com and Timo hello hello to everybody hello hello um I know you very well but and I know you  have a vast experience in digitalization of organizations production manufacturing iot  Etc so this is this is huge but for the audience would you kindly introduce yourself your company  rual also about your personal Journey uh how did you end up yeah sure pleasure so well my  name is t m and as you said I'm the founder and managing partner of bis G but also in my  previous life in my previous career I was working in a manufacturing industry in the  field of operations and procurement and as part of my last role at a German sensor maker I was  also overseeing the digital manufacturing team which was responsible to digitize the the shop  Flor processes and in this role I was constantly confronted with shortage of skilled workers and  the challenge to make the competences we needed available anywhere and any time that's where where  I was where I noticed that XR Technologies might can help to solve this this challenge  yeah and then at that time I was also doing an Executive MBA program at the University of s gal  and as part of my master thesis I analyzed and investigated about 120 use cases and Solutions  in the field of XR and by doing so I was able to identify which Solutions bring some real  benefit and which Solutions can really your work really in the best way and after I get graduated  then of course I also wanted to see not only in theory whether it works so I also got a chance to  implement some of those Solutions at my employer and also lat on at some be befriended companies  and that basically was where the foundation stone of V was was late yeah very nice very  nice but overall like what is the motivation behind it like what is what what what makes  you out of the bed in the morning what is the motivation behind it yeah is said already like  competence is needed competent is needed anywhere any time and this in the me has also become our  claim the claim of our company and I think with our background we we help our customers to really  make sure they have the required competencies available the time the time they need it and at  the place they need it I think many companies same as I had this experience notice ex arm  might can help them to solve the challenge but they they struggle to find the right solution  and to implement them efficiently and this is where we as a full service solution provider  step in we support them in identify the right tool finding a suitable Hardware that works very well  with the the software solution and then also get it running it is also the combination right not  only the software not only the hardware but the perfect fit between the hardware and the software  it's not it's not only one of them uh it is not important if one of them is performing well but  mainly the combination of it the fit one of one of the main learnings right at the beginning was  we we got a very nice software program yeah and we bought some standard hardware and then at the  end of the day we couldn't get it running because the hardware was trying to send some data home to  the headquarter of the hardware company and our firewall was blocking this so we had find okay  what what Hardware it's running really smooth and actually I think that's it's a common issue in  many companies you need have the right combination yeah yeah yeah absolutely absolutely that that fit  is is is quite important uh I mean every day with a a lot of customers I'm also Amazed by  their need and by by their requirement and also I'm sure that you have seen a lot of projects a  lot of um a lot of requirement from the customer side what was what was like kind of like um what  excites you the most about XR overall AR VR what excites you the most when it comes to the  customer and that touch point no but excites me most is really I think it's the very wide range  of of possible applications yeah and I think today ex art Technologies especially if we talk  in the industrial space are still on an early stage but the technology and related solutions  they develop so fast I'm I'm sure you can also tell and confirm right and it's very exciting to  be part of this this development yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely absolutely I remember even like  for example just as an example of epson devices uh like they had a huge huge huge device in the  beginning in the first run and now on the fourth front it is much smaller uh much more capable uh  with the battery power Etc so I guess that's every year every year it is it is it is just  hitting to the ceiling so yeah that's that's that's very very very good um and overall like  what is what what is your take on the effect of the software on Industrial AR projects like uh  also is there a meaningful difference between like for example requirement of uhme or midan  companies and big organizations when it comes to the decision on the product and uh also what  they want to do with the technology of Exar for example yeah yeah actually there there is and I  mean we working with both we working with larger corporations all the smaller companies and what  we see is larger organizations often have like the bigger budgets and but they Al They strive really  for the perfect solution and by doing so they they often become yeah I would say more slow yeah and  on the other hand side like smaller companies they often tend to gain fast experience but they have  only lower little little budget yeah and and my recommendation my recommendation really to  to both of them is always try to have the big picture in mind know where you want to go but  then start with small steps and learn fast start with a small step that gives you some immediate value okay cool cool interesting interesting uh overall I want to like ask you about like  I mean yeah um like there are a lot of companies want to adapt it but also I always believe that  we are so much in an early stage I mean it is it is not on the level that we want all the  time and uh I guess uh like the adaption in the industries is going to be is going to be huge  uh in coming years what is stopping it what is what is behind that like what are the barriers  overall in industries that you have you see that is stopping more Industries more companies to on  board and use this technology because I mean sometimes when I'm when I'm thinking about the  results and kpis it's just like at day one I mean it is no bra there to not to use this technology  but still um there are many barriers what do you see as the most uh kind of challenging barrier in  Industries I see two challenges I think the one first one is is starting already with the content  creation today often the creation of content is still very expensive and time consuming  but that's where another development also going to kick in like with the development of AI this  will help to accelerate this process yeah so the content creation will become much much faster and  I think they we well on track and the the second point is um exr Technologies both I think VR and  AR if you talk to customer customer they're always strongly associated with XR classes or  head mounted devices the go side and but in some cases they simply can't be used either for safety  reasons or because it's not comfortable for the worker for the workforce to wear them on like  eight hours a day and in our experiences in many cases this can be overcome by just switching to  a handheld device such as an as a phone or t yeah and by that I think the Android barrier is lowered  and also it's already you get some immediate benefits yeah um you you also touched Bas to  the generative AI overall with the content Etc but overall do you see any other any other kind  of place where it will help a lot with like I mean what will change on generative AI uh  overall uh with the industries and especially XR projects are there any any other places where AI  could play a big role you see me smiling because just just a few month mon ago I was writing also  an article about that about that topic and yes definitely I think you know the combination of a  and AI features will make the solutions even even more powerful so imagine like for instance AI can  help to recognize certain elements in in a in in in in a picture right so and if it recognize the  element and the data then it can display them directly in the field of vision of the of the  workforce again and that of course can be big big big benefit absolutely absolutely I always see AI  as a kind of a middle layer between the uh users and the applications right now we are we are kind  of uh imagining AI integration with vsite itself like that where uh it could create a great benefit  for the users where on on that interaction because AI could know everything about the past usage of  uh of of Vite all the content and of course this is specifically for each company that company owns  the IP but AI could help uh to get benefit from it because you know like you can't keep track of what  happened eight months ago in your organization but of course uh with a single click with a  keyword it can trigger AI to see okay like this is resembling to one of the cases happened eight  months ago let me check what is behind there and maybe the user that right now is working on one  case uh one problem on the production line might benefit from the from the past and why why why I'm  not bringing it to the to the user interface so I see a great fit where it is like a middle layer  between the user and also overall the past data of the company as you say right it can provide data  which may be going further back she is not aware anymore and also I mean if they if they're working  several hours on on topic they maybe get a little bit tired they're missing information slipless and  and of course they are also pre-trained database which maybe know some some patterns some know some  some some data patterns then can help to identify those those topics and and yeah again give give  them in h to the worker right interesting interesting interesting one well cool um  overall uh with the with the overall in the world and with the EU uh Direct ctions uh we see a lot  of push with the sustainability and particularly in reducing the carbon footprint uh in Industries  which we believe that this is quite important both um for the industries for the cost but also for  the environment and for our future for the world's future how do you see like XR Technologies uh to  contribute to that uh Target where we will have much efficient much less uh polluted environment  on our organiz a on our Industries how do you see exr Technologies can can contribute to that  so what was the situation in the past and and even today sometimes right um we have an issue  somewhere at one of our sites or at some of the customer sites and I have to send the technician  there to to get involed or we want to train our Workforce and we have to send them to the  headquarter to get the training done and I think really exr Technologies can can help to avoid this  TR and um for if you use remote support the expert is sitting at his home base but by the using of  the XR tool AR in this case probably he will then be able to steer the the field worker through the  topic and explain him exactly what to do and and maybe also display some information in his vision  so that he can really accurately work on the topic and by this of course of course um there will  you will be less traveling and of course there will also positive impact on the on the carbon  foodprint yeah another I think another topic also with the use of XR Technologies we we see  that the burger is going to be met less mistakes the output and productivity can be increased so  it will result in less STP higher output with the same amount of energy and resources that's  also once more as a positive feedback on the on the carbon foodprint interesting interesting one  uh we also have seen a lot of cases where um it played a big role uh other than the commute I  mean on the waste because some organizations when they need an expert and when they can't have that  some of the materials uh that are in facility uh are expired I mean when when the skilled Workforce  is not there and they can't get help then the production line is stopped and then they can't  use that material and this is a huge waste huge waste not only cost but also for the environment  those those materials they are they are they are not that easy to to to absorb by the environment  so we see a lot of a lot of cases where Exar Technologies can help to to to to to kind of  connect and um get the right information at the right time when we say that and which I'm going to  be connecting to to my next curiosity especially on your on your on your point of view about um  skilled Workforce and uh and and and also the um the um like kind of closing the um the skill gap  between the employees how like what what is there for manufacturing industry uh how is it like how  exr Technologies is changing uh the learning curve for example for the newcomers to the company and  like as you know this is the biggest problem in the world right now with the with the old  Industries aging problem uh is huge so how do you see that the skilled Workforce and uh the learning  curve and skill gap between employees yeah I think on one hand side right ex AR rings are not only  more fun because nobody wants but it is fun right they are more fun yeah they are more fun more fun  ex more fun and and I think also um studies is in the meantime have shown that the immersiveness  of exr trainings will actually accelerate the learning curve so people if they really  experience it if they have the feeling they really doing things they will learn they will learn much  much faster and the same time I think that's the topic you also touched already before during the  training in exr the training can be conducted anywhere any time yeah so we save traveling time  you don't need Trel to training location and at the same time you also don't have interruptions  of the production for training propose can keep product real production running while you do the  the training in in a in a protected environment so I think there's and there's a big potential  for trining propose using EX for trining propose yeah like I mean as you mentioned actually most of  the time with the big organizations it is not the case where um there is no skilled Workforce but  it is the case where a skilled Workforce cannot bring their expertise to the field like at the  right time that moment so that is that is that's quite important to have that skilled Workforce um  um um expertise uh right away so I guess I guess that is the most important part um and of course  every good and every fun technology let's say is coming with a cost uh and from a cost perspective  uh cost benefit perspective I would say how does the investment in Exar Technologies uh compare  to its return returns in manufacturing sector I mean uh is it like a long-term shut is it like  day one I mean we have touched that a bit uh actually but still I wanna I wanna I wanna I  want to learn more from your perspective so to say so for the cost I see they strongly depend  on on the use case of the of the of the customer and actually we we have some examples where it's  starting from a couple of hundred EUR but we also know projects with a six digigit amount yeah so  it really strongly depends on on the use case and doing this returnal investment calculation is is  part of all the projects we doing we really look okay what are the benefits what's going to be the  return for the the customer in general it can be said that like the return on investment often is  already reached after just a couple of months yeah it's not like if you buy a machine you  see normally P three four five years and it then it be amortized no normally I would say three to  four months and then you already if you return on seeing the seeing the return of investment yeah  absolutely even in some cases it is like I mean we have uh we have some customers they saying like  I mean we're using your solution even couple of times a year but still even once a year yeah as  you said and it is it is only once but that effect is like huge huge huge cost absolutely I'm sure  you all know these examples right there is a a machine down on on one of the sites or one of  customers or the expert needs to travel across the country or maybe even across the region so  he has at least one or two traveling days then he goes to the side he just takes a quick look and in  find out he needs to press one not and the Machine is up and running again and then you're traveling  traveling back and I think the time and the cost the Cur for that you probably already have uh  amortized with with with one one cost all license yeah absolutely absolutely no no absolutely right  AB right um yeah interesting we're very happy to to um to address those issues uh with with with  our partner like virtu re but I want to I want to ask you how important are collaborations I mean it  is important in every business everywhere it is important to have those Partnerships but I mean  like for us for example we see especially in xar in in Industries the customers should could like  they need a lot of help you should kind of hold their hand and walk with them you know walk with  them especially in the early onboarding processes but how do you see that collaboration I mean  how do you how do you measure the success of the collaboration uh with the partners in AR industry  and what are your approaches to those to those Partnerships and relationships so to say yeah yeah  what I think what's so much fun also about working in this industry is you have the very big players  right there are just a few which really have a dominating role but there's also an increasing  number of of smaller companies and and startups entering the market and and often it's really a  combination of the competencies between several players which which help to solve the customer  requirements in the best possible way because actually at the end of the day it's all about  solving the customer requirements how can we the best possible way solve the customer requirements  yeah as this this is also really a very very core element to the business model model of virtuity we  are the the industry experts and we see ourself as the matchmakers between the different partners and  we are at same time also the interface to the customer to make sure he get the best possible solution interesting interesting one interesting one cool um while we are coming to to end so to  say uh I want to ask you based on your experience and vision what are what like what are the next  big steps uh for virtual uh in the real of Exar and Manufacturing Industries uh are there are  are there any upcoming projects or collaborations you can share with us uh I'm very curious about  that actually okay well I mean one hand side of course we also working on our company strategy  and and there are some St for next year which I can't talk about very good time very good time  for that right like end of the year customers are a bit more silent nowadays and yeah we are  getting getting to the time where strategies are playing big yeah at the same time we we also have  all very very exciting projects still ongoing so for instance currently we we are working  with a German tunneling company on the concept of how to use or how to support their business  with XR and I mean if you imagine thrilling a tunnel into a mountain or below below a city  yeah these are really large projects with large equipment they are in normally they are very  Global projects um they need skilled workers and it's all happening in a very harsh environment  and it's really exciting project for us to to see how we can support them there with with our  Solutions with our partner Solutions and I think it once more also shows that there's there are no  boundaries for the use of XR right absolutely absolutely it's like it is like huge I mean  like you can apply it to anywhere literally any kind of case absolutely absolutely okay  interesting interesting um but I mean um I'm asking this question to everyone uh not only  in this show but overall I'm very curious about the perspective because you know we build the  future ourself we kind of create the future ourself and I want to like celebrate uh what  will happen in five years uh with with with with with the person that guessed it right so I want  to ask you also if it is goingon to be you I don't know uh Tio but overall um what do you  think what will happen in five years in overall AR XR um what kind of changes how how do you how  do you imagine and EnV Vision the future let's say five years good question good question um you  think 5 years from now XR is a is a established and mature technology and as I told before the  market currently still is maybe very fragmented I think it has become more Consolidated and even  more dominated by few players from and the last thing where I would make my better on is I think  in in five years V has established itself as leading full service solution provider in Europe okay development a for see becom more Tech mature technology becoming more Consolidated and  V is one of the leading Food Service solution providers in Europe okay okay good one good one  good one so let's see let's see if I'm going to celebrate you in five years so let's see  let's see we are all working on that so great um thank you very much Timo uh for joining us it was  a pleasure to host you um I enjoyed a lot and uh thanks a lot for your insights and thoughts  uh I would say like you know when experience is talking then it's so obvious and I can feel it  here so thanks a lot for joining and and reaching uh the content of this show uh I'm very delighted  to have you here um and to our listeners thank you very much for tuning in uh for for this episode  uh of field forward by Vite uh stay tuned for more uh for more discussions uh from the from  the from the field from the industries uh and from the Forefront of innovation if you like what you  heard please uh do not forget to subscribe uh to our YouTube and podcast channels uh and to  get new episodes uh of field forward every month uh but also we would love to have your feedback  leave us a comment Hing us uh through Linkedin YouTube anywhere I will appreciate your inputs  to make this show even better and the last note if you have any questions or suggestions um you  can record and send us your message we will definitely feature that in our next episode  uh you can find the link below uh overall thanks a lot for listening uh and thanks a lot Tio again  for joining us uh as a last remarks would you like to say a couple of things thank you very much it  was a big pleasure to be part of part of it and we are looking forward to a common future right  absolutely absolutely let's build it together let's build it together um thanks for listening  uh you just listened field forward uh the ultimate A2Z podcast for field operation professionals my  name is Cihat Kahraman uh I'm very happy to have you here Cheers [Music] Cheers [Music] he