XR technologies für industrial SMEs

Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) commonly referred to as Extended Realities (XR)- are expected to have a major effect on organizations in the coming decades, with no exception to the manufacturing industry. Several forecasters predict that AR and VR markets will grow significantly in the coming years. Besides the rapid technical developments with XR technologies, significant external factors, namely the COVID-19 pandemic, have spurred further interest into using XR in organizations. Despite the hype around XR, many manufacturing SMEs are still not sufficiently aware of the potential of these technologies, how they could be used to support their business processes, or what challenges they might face when adopting them, as reflected in the VAM Realities European Survey. Companies need to be aware of these technologies, where and how they can be used, and what factors can promote the added value, return on investment and effective adoption into their organizations. In order to address this topic, the Erasmus+ co-funded VAM Realities (VAM*Rs) project was launched at the beginning of 2020 to help European manufacturing SMEs to better understand the impact and opportunities of these technologies and to make informed decisions on where and how to adopt and integrate them in their business operations.