Tag: virtual reality

OM in the News: Coronavirus Makes Augmented Reality’s Potential a Reality

An engineer in the Netherlands using AR glasses developed by Microsoft to guide maintenance.

Intel’s semiconductor production hit a stumbling block in March. A chip plant in Arizona needed work done, but the engineer for the job was stuck in Germany because of coronavirus flight restrictions. If Intel couldn’t recalibrate existing machines and install new ones, America’s largest chip maker faced a production slowdown just when demand was surging as PCs and the cloud became critical to facilitate remote work.

Unable to fly in the German expert, Intel transported him virtually using augmented-reality goggles that had been developed mainly to show training videos. The stranded engineer, watching a video feed his counterparts at Intel relayed via their goggles, walked them through the repair, allowing the work to be completed on schedule. At Intel, this success launched remote maintenance from an experiment to part of the company’s permanent operational plans.

Across multiple industries, augmented reality, or AR, has transitioned during the pandemic from intriguing experiment to everyday tool, reports The Wall Street Journal (June 10, 2020). That makes AR, discussed in Chapter 5 (p.172) in your Heizer/Render/Munson OM text, more useful in a world where business travel and direct human interaction are restricted—and likely to stay that way for a while. Porsche’s usage of AR glasses in its U.S. dealerships more than tripled during the pandemic as technicians performing complicated repairs on the pricey sports cars called in virtual help from repair experts hundreds of miles away.

Globalfoundries, another major chip maker, faced a similar problem to Intel’s. When one of its multimillion-dollar machines needed work, an engineer at one of its plants donned a HoloLens headset and called up a video chat to consult an equipment expert in the Netherlands to guide him through repairs. That company is now using iPads, headsets, and AR or virtual reality tools to do jobs once done by traveling engineers.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. What is the difference between AR and VR? (See Ch. 5)
  2.  How else might this tool be used in manufacturing or healthcare?

OM in the News: Walmart Turns to Virtual Reality

A Walmart employee goes through VR training

When some Walmart store workers want to apply for a higher-paying management role, the company fits them with a $250 virtual reality headset to see if they are the right candidate for the job. The country’s largest private employer is using a VR skills assessment as part of the selection process to find new middle managers, watching how workers respond in virtual reality to an angry shopper, a messy aisle or an underperforming worker.

VR training is becoming more common in a variety of industries to educate a large number of workers quickly or assess the technical ability of high-skilled workers like electricians or pilots. But Walmart’s use of the technology to gauge a worker’s strengths, weaknesses and potential is significant, writes The Wall Street Journal (July 1, 2019), because it pushes VR evaluation out to a massive hourly workforce and in some cases helps determine who gets raises and who gets demoted.

Walmart hopes the technology will limit bias inherent in many traditional hiring decisions, increase diversity and reduce turnover among its 1.5 million U.S. employees in a tight labor market. It started using VR training broadly last year, adding headsets in the backrooms of all 4,600 U.S. stores to train workers how to stock shelves or use new online pickup machines. The VR assessments have been given to over 10,000 workers so far as part of a new store management structure rolling out to some stores that reduces the number of managers. Use of VR reflects broader efforts by employers to quickly, but fairly gauge workers’ abilities as jobs change due to automation and other factors.

Classroom discussion questions

  1. What is the strength of this VR approach?
  2. What are the potential downsides of this technology in employee promotion?

OM in the News: Amusement Parks Hurtle Into Virtual Reality

Amusement parks hope virtual reality will lure visitors
Amusement parks hope virtual reality will lure visitors

There are more than 3,000 roller coasters world-wide. Amusement and theme parks are booming, generating revenue of roughly $32 billion last year, up almost 40% from 2009. But competition among parks and from other types of entertainment is intense.

Major park operators must provide innovative amusement facilities such as outrageous rides and generate exclusive entertainment environments. “Usage of entertainment-related technology is increasingly becoming imperative for the success of a theme park,” writes The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 31, 2016). For roller-coaster fans bored by loops and drops, virtual reality, or VR (see page 172 in Chapter 5), offers the extra twist of flying dragons, battles with aliens or a midair rescue by Superman, at 25 newly equipped amusement parks across the globe.

In September, Europa Park’s child-friendly “Alpenexpress” locomotive ride went live with a VR romp among cartoon animals. Headset wearers experience a corkscrew loop that the tame ride doesn’t do. Soon after, Six Flags and other operators jumped onboard. In March, Six Flags debuted the technology to relaunch its 1976-vintage Revolution coaster in Los Angeles—the world’s first coaster with a full loop—on its 40th birthday. Riders experience an airborne battle against invading aliens. It then added a Superman adventure and in July relaunched its Demon coaster as “Rage of the Gargoyles,” an interactive adventure in which riders can shoot at virtual monsters by looking at them. On most of the 25 current user roller coasters, VR it is offered as an option, meaning parks can pitch both a virtual or traditional version of the coaster. Staff are needed to help riders gear-up and manage headset swaps.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of adding this VR feature?
  2. Name other potential OM applications for VR.