Industrial AR Return on Investment

Augmented reality is a touted potential benefit of edge computing, 5G public and private networks. In fact, many enterprises had been using AR since at least 2018 for training applications. That suggests we could see many more such use cases in broader settings.

But AR also is easier for some use cases when IoT sensing also is available. That might be true for organizations in industrial settings conducting remote diagnostics and adjustment. One study by Forrester Research of PTC’s “Vuforia” industrial AR system found return on investment in the form of 50-percent-reduced training time; 60-percent-faster document creation time and a reduction in overtime payments between 10 percent and 12 percent. 

source: Forrester Research  

As early as 2018, surveys of enterprises made by Aberdeen Group had found 72 percent  of “best-in-class” organizations already use internet of things sensors and systems to capture and share diagnostics data with off-site stakeholders.

Specifically, 67 percent of users of augmented reality technology use IoT specifically as a means to conduct remote repairs.

Those firms also used augmented reality. Researchers at Aberdeen Group found that AR-powered knowledge sharing is being employed by 25 percent of “best-in-class” firms.

AR-powered on-site guides were used by 31 percent of best-in-class organizations.

 source: Aberdeen Group, PTC

Aberdeen argues that AR is a tool to improve the quality and consistency of customer support, as well as reduce service technician turnover.

On average, organizations are seeing technician turnover of 31.5 percent, Aberdeen Group has found. To add to this problem, an increasing number of service technicians are contracted (an average of 26.4 percent), meaning less consistency in service delivery, and more short-term labor that needs to be quickly on-boarded and trained.

Organizations with higher-than-average turnover see a 14 percent lower first-time fix rate compared to firms with lower turnover (52 percent compared to 66 percent). 

High-turnover companies also see customer Organizations with higher-than-average turnover see a 14 percent lower first-time fix rate compared to firms with lower turnover. v3 3 retention at a mere 60 percent, compared to 72 percent for those with lower than-average turnover, Aberdeen Group researchers say.