The Record - Issue 20: Spring 2021

105 MANU FAC TUR I NG & R E SOUR C E S machine out of production,” says Senner. “Not only does this reduce expenses, but it also gives businesses the ability to train their employees from anywhere. And compared to two-dimen- sional training manuals, users train faster and retain the knowledge better through an immer- sive experience like mixed reality.” Knowledge sharing is an essential part of the modern workplace and, with the integration of communication and productivity tools such as Microsoft Teams, is getting easier than ever. Building materials firm Saint-Gobain needed specific expertise to fix maintenance issues, which often required highly qualified individu- als to travel to factories worldwide. As a result, these experts were experiencing travel fatigue and incurring considerable expense. To address this, Saint-Gobain began working with mixed reality and internet of things expert innoteo to deploy Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, HoloLens and Teams. This provided its factory workers with virtual, on-demand help from experts and improved the speed, impact and sustainability of its maintenance and train- ing processes. “Most customers are using HoloLens to improve productivity by reducing the amount of travel, errors and hands-on production,” says Senner. Saint-Gobain’s implementation story high- lights another, particularly topical, benefit of using mixed reality solutions in manufacturing – sustainability. With its expert staff travelling hundreds of miles to address factory issues, their environmental impact was not insignificant. By enabling these employees to share their knowl- edge virtually, and guide on-premises staff to fix the solution themselves, Saint-Gobain has been able to realise some of its sustainability goals. “When you add up the ways mixed reality drives sustainability, through reduced waste, operational efficiency, reduced travel, and sus- tainable buildings, there is no question that as more organisations adopt at scale, this will drive material environmental benefit,” says Senner. “And, with over 86 per cent of Fortune 500 companies publishing sustainability reports, we see firms like Mercedes-Benz USA and Saint- Gobain considering this as a core reason behind their mixed reality investment. “So, while the pandemic accelerated roadmaps as a means of business continuity, for many companies leveraging remote collaboration and assistance for field service, audits and inspec- tions, design collaboration and more, there is no going back. If you can reduce travel by 40 per cent while improving your employee and cus- tomer experience, why would you?” Organisations are using Microsoft HoloLens to improve productivity by reducing the amount of travel and hands-on production