Enterprise Application Use cases in Metaverse – Manufacturing
As internet technology goes through its next iteration with the Metaverse coming into its own in the past few years, there is a great deal of excitement in the tech world about its potential and possibilities.
With Metaverse gaining traction, developers, and companies and finding novel ways of applying it to real-life use cases with the industry growing at an exponential rate.
Enterprise Metaverse use cases
Metaverse offers innovative opportunities in manufacturing.
Manufacturing
The metaverse has tremendous potential to transform the manufacturing industry as it exists today. The most obvious use case is that of digital twins – virtual replicas of physical entities – of the industrial and manufacturing spaces which offer users both a macro and a micro visualization of their plants and facilities. At an enterprise or macro level, it could offer a holistic and complete insight into the functioning of the organization in real-time. At a micro level, shop floor employees could use the metaverse space to monitor performance and identify and fix issues of individual equipment with its components, as if they were physically present there.
The world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, is using the Metaverse to enhance its operations by using Azure Digital Twins to create breweries and supply chain digital models that are synced to the physical environment in real-time. The benefits of this archetype are fine-tuning the brewing process and quality control.
Research states that training in Metaverse results in students learning 4 times faster than they would in a traditional classroom environment.
The immersive learning process in the Metaverse has far better outcomes than in a traditional classroom setting and students learn better and faster in a VR environment.
Training in the Metaverse environment for the manufacturing industry implies safe and risk-free training in a safe virtual environment. In a real-world environment, an apprentice undergoing training with heavy physical equipment might face risks in a potentially hazardous setting.
Companies like JetBlue use VR technology to train their technicians. A real-life scenario of training technicians with real aircraft would be expensive and time-consuming and potentially risky. The company used VR sets for its technicians and in collaboration with Strivr deployed a solution that simulated a real-life setting and eliminated the time, expense, and risk of a physical environment. Also, training in a VR metaverse allows a trainee to make mistakes in a secure environment without undesirable consequences.
The Engineering and Aerospace conglomerate, Honeywell, uses AR and VR in its training efforts. VR and Mixed Reality can be used to provide remote assistance and collaboration in the resolution of complex repair and maintenance issues. Technicians in the BMW facility use AR glasses to provide a hands-free video overlay and at the same time connect with support teams sitting many miles away to fix the issues.
Manufacturers can also benefit from Metaverse simulations of their facilities to test possible factory scenarios which will then enable them to develop methods to automate and optimize their plants. Before creating its actual factory in Bavaria, BMW in its virtual factory, replicated its complete production workflow digitally to ensure that all processes were optimized and operated smoothly.
Metaverse can benefit manufacturers by facilitating improved consumer decision making too. For e.g.: automotive manufacturers can enable prospective buyers to “touch and feel” a car and even customize it to their tastes before they buy it. This simulation and visualization of the actual car help manufacturers understand the customer’s requirements the first time and minimize the effort and expense involved in rework. The metaverse can help car dealerships by facilitating test drives from the comfort of a prospective customer’s home, helping sell cars, and broadening the dealerships’ reach. Opportunities in this space include establishing a virtual dealership for customers to ask the dealer questions about their vehicles, take a test drive, or even just view vehicles.
4th Industrial revolution- Metaverse in manufacturing
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has created a world of online and offline convergence with the manufacturing industry being a major part of it. The industrial metaverse aims to bring digital experiences to inherently physical processes, taking digital transformation and “Industry 4.0” to a new level. The industrial metaverse starts with a digital experience before translating it to physical operations, rather than using IoT or building digital platforms to bring machines online. This is useful in areas such as predictive maintenance and asset monitoring and can be done remotely. The metaverse also offers significant advantages in Industry 4.0 regarding training employees and accessing data.
Conclusion
Metaverse has created a new and unique world full of possibilities and opportunities for a diverse variety of businesses.
Although the early adopters might need to prepare for the challenges it presents currently, they will certainly gain a competitive edge by leveraging the immense potential of this field.
