Augmented reality (AR) is one of the most accessible advanced technologies available to manufacturers today. Anyone who’s worn a pair of glasses knows precisely how to use the hardware. But if you order up some AR devices without a plan, you’ll probably only wind up with another toy sitting on a shelf somewhere.
James Massey, senior team leader at Ford’s Rawsonville Components Plant near Detroit, historically doesn’t wear a smile when going about his duties in the shop. So, when Massey says a new technology “makes him giddy,” you know something’s changed for the better on the floor.
Plant Manager Sandy Ilievsky kicked off skip-level meetings immediately after taking the reins in late 2023. A key finding: team leaders needed more help for training their operators. Then, last spring, she held a Kaizen event that generated a key question about how to deepen the level of training at the plant.
Ford Motor doesn’t have a central technology division pushing industry 4.0. Plant leaders have broad autonomy in choosing which technologies they deploy. Ford instead relies on awareness of successful deployments, such as offering bus tours of plants across the country, to encourage technology adoption.
The company does, however, also support a team specifically to promote AR, a technology with which Ford has enjoyed success. A recent AR application at Ford’s plant in Dearborn, Michigan, for example, allows operators to check wiring harnesses on 2L engines.
Karl Kostrzewa, controls engineer at Rawsonville, had watched promotional videos produced by the AR group and, following the skip meetings and Kaizen event, recognized the opportunity to leverage the technology for training.
Ford’s augmented reality group provided a pair of HoloLens units to the Rawsonville plant. The rest of the project came at plant expense, “an investment in training of our workforce,” says Ilievsky.
Digital Illusions Build Real Muscle Memory
The Rawsonville plant manufactures hybrid and fully electric batteries and components for traditional engines. The first AR-based simulation lab deployed in the battery department.
Operators grew curious when Kostrzewa, Massey, senior process coach Colin Wing, the IT department and others cleared space in the center of the manufacturing floor and set up the new simulation lab shortly after the Kaizen.
A few operators already knew the technology well and owned a few sets personally, Massey says, but the vast majority didn’t know what he meant when he said “VR/AR.”
Kostrzewa might have looked a little out of his mind while wearing the HoloLens glasses and gesticulating in the air at unseen objects as he set up the simulation lab. The technology ceased feeling alien to operators very quickly, however.
A training battery sits in the middle of the simulation lab, where operators familiarize themselves with the battery and receive basic knowledge about bolt guns or other hardware that novices to industrial environments might not recognize.
The operator puts on the HoloLens unit and sees panes projected in their field of view. Setting up panes in Microsoft’s MS Guides cloud-based software feels similar to dragging and dropping content into a PowerPoint deck, says Kostrzewa. Text, graphics or videos may all appear within a pane.
In this case, one pane displays the operator information sheet (OIS) for the station, including the order of tasks. Arrows projected in AR hover over the bolts to run down.
Background video courtesy of Ford Motor Co.
“The traditional way of doing it, we read the OIS, JSA (job safety analysis)…the critical to quality items, why it’s so critical… it’s all verbal,” Ilievsky says. “Then they go on-line. [With the HoloLens training] we’re now eliminating that first three-to-four times where the person’s trying to get used to it, by [training] off-line. … By the time they get to on-line ready, they already have that muscle memory. They know exactly what they’re doing.”
Massey adds, “About 30% of my people have been trained on the [simulation lab]. Every one of them loves it. They feel better when they get to the line. … They’re more relaxed. And the majority of them are within cycle within three or four parts.”
How does that compare to how quickly new operators get within cycle using traditional, pre-HoloLens training?
“Old school training, with me standing there showing them? They get three days, contractually,” Massey laughs.
All jokes aside, not having to stand over the shoulder of every new operator during training takes the pressure off Massey, as well. Now, instead of supervising a single station during training, Massey divides his time between all the leaders on the floor as he usually does, even with a brand-new operator on the line.
Hence the smile.
The Rawsonville plant now additionally uses HoloLens-based training on the plant’s carbon canister manufacturing line and in the material planning and logistics department, with further expansions planned in the immediate future.
Augmenting Awareness to Increase Innovation
The first bus tour of the Rawsonville plant that showed off the simulation lab took place in August 2024. According to Ilievsky, leaders from other Ford plants have since continued returning to Rawsonville to learn more about the training program.
She makes it clear to visiting plant leaders that while augmented reality technology does play the starring role in Rawsonville’s simulation lab, it’s just part of the puzzle. The maintenance group, production teams and IT department all had to get involved to make the project work.
You can’t just order up a few HoloLens units and expect innovation to follow. That way lies pilot purgatory. You need an obvious pain point and a clear plan. Technology, even something as awesome as augmented reality, is always just a tool.
