The Record - Issue 19: Winter 2020

V I EWPO I NT Creating a new reality with HoloLens MAR K S TOWE : THEOR EM SOLUT I ONS Mixed reality solutions can bring huge business benefits to manufacturing and engineering organisations I ntegrating Microsoft HoloLens into engi- neering and manufacturing workflows takes time and involves investment. In the long run though it can save manufacturers money, reduce lead times and improve processes. Many businesses in the sector have evaluated the devices and their capabilities and are now con- sidering how best to deploy mixed reality (MR) solutions – that combine mixed reality with the physical world – to achieve a financial return. Lots of people talk in grandiose terms about having an MR strategy, but you can’t truly have one unless you understand the technology and where it’s going to benefit your business. To add business value, HoloLens needs to solve real business problems. Consider how using HoloLens technology is going to improve an existing process. Will it save time? Will it reduce build costs or manufacturing assembly times? Will it improve your service process or time to market? Think about the business benefits and the return on investment. Without that, manage- ment are unlikely to provide the manpower or budget to go ahead. There also needs to be a change management approach. The implementation will require a change in the behaviour and mindsets of people across the whole organisation and how they use technology. Once you understand the benefits, you need to choose the application you will use. Many companies, including Theorem Solutions, offer ‘out the box’ solutions to help customers reach their HoloLens goals. Before choosing one, do your research; make sure you understand how the provider can meet the needs of your use case. It’s also important to factor in how you plan to integrate your data in HoloLens. If possible, you don’t want to have to manually rework data to make it usable. Ideally you should be able to simply drag and drop or derive it from a product lifecycle management system. There are a lot of challenges, but they are all manageable. One of the first things is to be realistic about how you will be able to use HoloLens. Choose a use case, figure out an effec- tive approach to solve it and run with it. Break it down into small elements which will improve your business. Ensure that the use case is prac- tical and choose elements which can be solved quickly. You will then show the benefits of the solution to the business. People may ask ‘Why not wait until the tech- nology matures before implementing it?’ It’s a good question, but by waiting you will quickly fall behind your competitors. Lots of large com- panies have already started down this journey, are getting to grips with MR solutions and are seeing how they can improve their business. With the shift in 2020 towards remote work- ing, the remote collaboration capabilities of “The remote collaboration capabilities of HoloLens are more relevant than ever” www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om 76