Potentials of Augmented Reality – Insights into Industrial Practice

With emerging technologies, research is increasingly focusing on the digitalization of the working world and the resulting potentials, but also risks, for employees. People and technology are beginning to grow together in industrial environments. New technologies can support skills and improve results of the daily work, but the most important factor is still the human being. Assistance systems based on Augmented Reality (AR) are increasingly attract the attention of companies. Currently, there are not many implementation reports and applications in companies. This paper discusses the findings based on observations from industrial site inspections in the areas of training, commissioning of goods, and the manual assembly process. Inspections took place at three pioneering companies in the automotive industry, online distance selling, and the energy sector. When it comes to the use of assistance systems, the main goals of these companies that are very open to innovation are to improve efficiency and quality, e.g., minimize errors and optimize speed. Qualitative content analysis was used to evaluate the interview transcripts, the collected transcripts and notes from the guided tours, and the brief participations in these industries. The results are presented in the form of user experiences with AR addressing their advantages and disadvantages in the context of use. In addition, these were categorized into a predefined classification of influencing factors and challenges.