Industrial Augmented Reality

Improve workforce efficiency by using industrial augmented reality to deliver critical, in-context information and instructions for frontline workers—where and when they need it most

What is industrial augmented reality (IAR)?

Industrial augmented reality is the application of highly visual, interactive methods of presenting relevant digital information within enterprise and industrial spaces.

Industrial AR solutions offer a better way to create and deliver easily consumable work instructions, procedures, and critical information by overlaying content onto real-world work environments—connecting employees and improving business outcomes.

Augmented reality vs. industrial augmented reality

Augmented reality allows visual, digital content to be displayed over the physical world to enhance an experience. This technology can be used for shopping, entertainment, or in the workplace. Industrial augmented reality is the use of this interactive technology for use cases in manufacturing, service, and operations to improve workforce efficiency. When combined with enterprise IoT, PLM, and CAD data, industrial AR can be a powerful tool for upskilling your workforce, optimizing operations, and increasing revenue.

Benefits of industrial AR

Industrial augmented reality provides workforce efficiency gains across the enterprise with improved service times, optimized manufacturing operations, and enhanced productivity of new hires.

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Improvement in new hire productivity

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Improvement in first-time fix rate

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Reduction in training costs

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Decrease in manufacturing cycle time

Empower your frontline workforce with augmented reality

Better information delivery, faster knowledge transfer, modernized training methods, and optimized work instructions. Augmented reality is helping solve critical business challenges by reshaping how frontline employees work—resulting in faster execution, fewer manual processes, and better decision-making.

<p>Better information delivery, faster knowledge transfer, modernized training methods, and optimized work instructions. Augmented reality is helping solve critical business challenges by reshaping how frontline employees work—resulting in faster execution, fewer manual processes, and better decision-making.</p>

AR applications are delivered on mainstream devices

From smartphones and tablets to RealWear and HoloLens 2 headsets, AR instructions can easily be published and viewed on a wide range of devices across the enterprise.

From smartphones and tablets to RealWear and HoloLens 2 headsets, AR instructions can easily be published and viewed on a wide range of devices across the enterprise.

AR provides new approaches to key business challenges

AR addresses workforce challenges through easy capture and documentation of expert best practices and presentation of digital content in real-world context.

AR addresses workforce challenges through easy capture and documentation of expert best practices and presentation of digital content in real-world context.

Enterprise AR delivers ROI in real-world applications

Industrial organizations in a variety of verticals around the world are already realizing the value of successfully implementing enterprise AR.

Industrial organizations in a variety of verticals around the world are already realizing the value of successfully implementing enterprise AR.

Augmented reality industrial applications

Industrial AR has numerous practical applications and knowing where to begin depends on understanding where you'll get the fastest, most meaningful ROI. Explore how these AR applications can offer clear returns, tangible benefits, and a road map to scale up with AR technology.

Manufacturing

In manufacturing, the efficiency of frontline workers is critical to achieving low cycle times and increasing throughput. Revolutionize your workforce with augmented reality work instructions and training to elevate skills, improve productivity, and enhance overall efficiency.

Explore AR for Manufacturing

Service

Whether your workers are in the factory or the field, ensuring service technicians have access to the most up-to-date information is essential. Empower your technicians with real-time, contextual data, remote support, and clear augmented work instructions to resolve problems faster, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction.

Explore AR for Service

Inspection

Enhance the quality control of your products by providing augmented reality visual guidance and AI-powered inspection to your frontline workers, reducing your scrap, recalls, and costs.

Explore AR for Inspection

Training

Upskill your employees or onboard new hires faster with engaging, easy to follow AR instructions that decrease the time to productivity and reduce training costs.

Explore AR for Training

Artificial Intelligence

In industrial settings, AI's ability to gather critical frontline data that can be contextualized and leveraged for task automation is a game changer for improving efficiency and simplifying work tasks. However, AI insights aren't always easy to visualize. That's where AR comes in. AR provides an intuitive and potentially hands-free user interface that allows people to access, manage, and act on AI insights more effectively.

Industrial AR case studies

Learn how organizations across different industries are finding value in augmented reality to improve their business outcomes and workforce efficiency.

STERIS

STERIS created an AR application that helped their customers reduce errors, improve accuracy of loading technique, and eliminate item misplacement on their industrial grade washers.

Read Their Story

Howden

Howden dramatically reduced customer downtime by transforming their existing 3D CAD models into immersive, step-by-step work instructions in Vuforia Studio that enable customers to perform self-service and maintenance procedures on machines in the field.

Read Their Story

Vectrona

U.S. Air Force partnered with Vectrona, Microsoft, and PTC to incorporate augmented reality into their maintenance and munitions training to accelerate learning, improve performance, and facilitate remote training.

Read Their Story

MERCK

MERCK minimized human error and achieved a higher level of standardized work by leveraging PTC augmented reality technology that enabled technicians to get the information they needed in-context.

Read Their Story

Magna

Nascote Industries, a division of Magna International, embraced Vuforia AR solutions to accelerate new hire training, optimize quality inspection, and boost efficiency.

Read Their Story

Peterbilt

Peterbilt Motors Company, an American truck manufacturer, specializes in the production of heavy-duty and medium-duty commercial vehicles. Peterbilt embraced AR to empower their technicians to improve service quality and speed.

Read Their Story

Volvo Group

Volvo Group enables first responders to react faster, more confidently, and with better guidance through a comprehensive and immersive AR solution.

Read the Case Study

Frequently asked questions

What is enterprise augmented reality?

Enterprise augmented reality, like most enterprise solutions, helps solve multifaceted issues within large organizations by connecting critical data sources. The added value of AR is the ability for workers to visualize this critical data in the context of their work environment—be that in the factory, office, or field. Learn more about Vuforia, PTC’s enterprise augmented reality solution.

What is the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality?

The key difference between augmented reality and virtual reality is the ability to see your physical environment. A VR headset is required for virtual reality, and when worn, the entire environment becomes digital, and the user is completely immersed in the experience. With augmented reality, the user can still see the physical world, but it’s augmented with digital objects.

What kind of industrial applications are possible with AR?

Industrial augmented reality can be used in a variety of ways across an organization, most notably within manufacturing, service, and training. AR is uniquely suited to provide valuable context to frontline workers while they repair, assemble, and inspect essential machinery. This added context and immersive capabilities make it ideal as a training tool for new hires, reducing the time it takes to get them out in the field.

How does augmented reality support Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0 is the newest phase of the industrial revolution that involves a variety of “smart” technologies, including automation, machine learning, connected data, and real-time data. At PTC, we see this as the next step in the evolution of manufacturing, based on the idea that machines should be able to communicate with each other and work together to create new products and services. Augmented reality is deeply involved with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and provides the visual, digital aids that offer deeper contextual significance to business-critical data.

What is the future of industrial AR?

Like many cutting-edge technologies supporting Industry 4.0, augmented reality is poised to grow exponentially in the coming years. Organizations who value innovation are already seeing returns from their AR investments, with bigger gains still to come. Augmented reality is seen as an essential tool for future innovation by leading technology companies as a key method to visualize data while on the job. Whether teams are in the factory, office, or field, PTC’s continued research and investment will help drive greater productivity and efficiency for industrial organizations around the world.

PTC industrial augmented reality software

Vuforia offers comprehensive, scalable enterprise augmented reality solutions to create immersive content for frontline workers. Our wide range of offerings ensures that we can provide the right AR technology to every customer based on their business needs.

Explore Vuforia

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Getting started with industrial augmented reality solutions

Practical guidance for AR project planning, execution, and success

White Paper

Practical guidance for AR project planning, execution, and success

How does augmented reality address top business priorities?

From operational efficiency and revenue growth to upskilling and compliance, AR for business is the tool leaders never knew they needed

E-book

From operational efficiency and revenue growth to upskilling and compliance, AR for business is the tool leaders never knew they needed

Select the right augmented reality solutions

Take a deeper look into the Vuforia solution suite and understand each product’s distinguishing capabilities and optimal use-cases to address your biggest business challenges.

Buyer's Guide

Take a deeper look into the Vuforia solution suite and understand each product’s distinguishing capabilities and optimal use-cases to address your biggest business challenges.

Start your industrial augmented reality journey

Contact an AR expert

Speak with one of our AR experts to learn more about the ways that AR can improve service, customer experiences, operations, and the way you engineer and manufacture products.

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