Ah, virtual reality. Huge potential but always seems that next year is the big breakout. There are many interesting case studies, more and more people trying VR for the first time and more hardware being sold every day, but in terms of practical, everyday applications in business, virtual reality is viewed by many as being in the nice to have but not essential category.
But that’s already changing and is going to change rapidly in the near future. Virtual reality will offer significant advantages for professionals working in a host of different industries. It will allow industries from manufacturing to automotive, logistics, retail, hospitality and more to better plan for the future, access and see real-time data and hardware anywhere in the world, and collaborate on new designs, to name a few applications. In totality, estimates place the worth of the VR industry at $28.3 billion by 2020 (Source).
Below are five areas where there’s big potential for VR in business applications.
Automotive
As far back in 2012 (WAY back in VR-terms!), reports (example) were showing how manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Ford were using VR for visual prototyping, manufacturing, virtual assembly, testing and training. Ford’s VR testing center is well documented for helping the company reduce costs, as employees – for example – were able to spot potential issues that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, and for the ability to try out new ideas (Automation World). But there are a host of other uses as well. Employing VR can make it easier for corporate offices to visualize and roll out new brand standards for dealerships, then upload complete, VR-ready 360-degree imagery to confirm new standards have been met. Using VR for these purposes can further reduce costs by more effectively using time, reducing travel and lends itself to increased communication across departments and stakeholders.
Manufacturing
Virtual reality will make production planning easier, as professionals will be able to virtually see the production line before it is built. Manufacturing equipment maker Gabler is one use case. The company has used VR to accelerate manufacturing line planning – which reduced development time by 15 percent (Source) – and Gable also uses VR to enable specialists to conduct remote equipment maintenance, saving both time and money otherwise required for these pros to be on-site. As can be expected, most applications of VR in the manufacturing realm are about cost prevention through the use of space planning and being able to foresee challenges such as fire hazards and safety concerns ahead of time and provide accurate floor plans to vendors and internal stakeholders.
Logistics
There is huge potential for virtual reality in logistics and shipping. With data visualization for inventory systems, people will be able to see exactly where products are located in a warehouse and how they are moving about. SAP has been exploring this for some time and has demonstrated the use of 3D modeling, VR and heat maps for asset tracking in a warehouse environment, which makes it easy to see bottlenecks and locate and track specific packages in real-time (Source). Information can be as detailed as the user may want, including for example when a package arrived, what’s inside, where it’s going, when it needs to ship, etc. Data integrations with inventory systems, purchasing, supply chain and logistics, will help professionals effectively understand and manage a warehouse facility with supply chain visualization.
Oil & Gas
There are a number of applications for VR in energy, particularly in fossil fuel operations through geovisualization, training and remote equipment and systems monitoring, particularly because oil and gas operating locations are often remote and sometimes dangerous. Virtual reality is already making it possible for anyone, including executives and engineers alike, to travel to the location and get an up-close, data-rich experience of current and future states, including the ability to experience sub-surface earth models. Exxon Mobil has been using virtual reality extensively for training and creating plant scenarios, such as emergency response that can be first experiences in a controlled environment. According to Murali Ventakesh from North America Downstream Oil & Gas Company, the values that VR can bring to oilfield services include increasing productivity and lower costs by better planning operations and maintenance procedures, and promote safety, lower risk of mistakes and eliminate disruption of work with virtual training. (Source).
Casinos and Gaming
Virtual reality gambling is big. $520 million by 2021 big (Source). But there’s also the potential for casino operations to tap into VR for space planning (moving machines and tables around in the virtual world), as well as a similar application to the logistics scenario where bottlenecks and other issues can be viewed in a virtual world through 3D models and heat maps. Casinos are constantly shifting around the floor to improve the customer experience, and virtual reality makes space planning extremely simple; changes can be made on-the-fly and reviewed in the virtual space. We’ve seen a similar use case through our work with convention centers, able to use VR and 3D models to quickly layout and visualize event spaces for internal use and to share with clients.
These are but a few of the potential applications of virtual reality in business. It’s an exciting time for VR, and I have no doubt that many more businesses use cases for VR will be popping up in the next few months.
