Knowledge transfer for new employees is often the bottleneck to effective and efficient onboarding and can be a major source of downtime when the right knowledge is unavailable on-site. The RealWear HMT-1 provides solutions to these problems, and more, in an intuitive and safe way.
What is HMT-1?
RealWear has developed the HMT-1 as an android OS based head mounted tablet. Its small, comfortable to wear form factor provides an intrinsically safe, hands free, and easy to use way of sharing knowledge all through an organization.
Training of new manufacturing employees or even training veteran employees in new processes can be cumbersome to manage without decreasing productivity of the local expert or running the risk of product or process defects. Video work instructions have been proposed for years as a solution to these problems, but implementation has been difficult for many reasons. The Realwear HMT-1 provides the ability to capture a natural, first-person point of view of production processes with clear video and audio to record video work instructions. By mounting the camera and microphone to the trainer’s head, it is possible to record all steps that must be taken to complete a task while making special note of any critical steps or to provide the “tricks of the trade” developed by a seasoned expert.
Additionally, using the RealWear HMT-1 headset’s real time telepresence ability allows for real time conferencing with an off-site expert. This can be a major improvement in technical resource utilization in the case of equipment failures but can also play a helpful role in coaching new employees to perform a task “solo” for the first time. An expert can either observe the process in real-time and provide support and instruction as needed, or a video can be captured for later review together with the employee.
With travel expenses and restrictions being a constant source of complication to a manufacturing operation, being able to get expert knowledge “on-site” via the RealWear HMT-1 can be a major time and cost saver to any industry. The ability to record real-time video work instructions can greatly improve the ramp-up time for new employees and provide immediate feedback to an employee learning a new process for the first time.
To explore what this technology can do for you and your organization, contact IMEC today for an on-site assessment and demonstration of HMT-1.
IMEC recently launched a fully-funded opportunity for Illinois manufacturers to get the assistance and technical support needed identify, adopt, and implement new technologies that can solve productivity and innovation challenges. Learn more and apply to become an Industry 4.0 Showcase Manufacturer.