Evaluation Of An Augmented Reality Qualification System For Manual Assembly And Maintenance

Today's manufacturing landscape is faced with a variety of challenges, including globalization, rapidly evolving sales markets, shortened product life cycles, customization, mass production and variant diversity. These trends are expected to continue, if not intensify, in the near future. Companies in this sector identify speed and adaptability of production processes as critical success factors. In order to meet the demands of the market, it is becoming important to deploy personnel strategically and flexibly throughout the entire production process. This increased need for versatility raises the imperative for additional qualification among the workforce. The integration of Augmented Reality (AR) into operational procedures makes it possible to present information in a context-specific and location-based manner by superimposing virtual cues onto the real environment. At the same time, smart glasses can offer a significant and adaptable level of support by enabling the provision of different forms of media while ensuring the availability of both hands. This paper shows results of an ongoing long-term study with the AR-based qualification system AQUA. The software aims to enable the preservation of internal specialist knowledge with minimal effort and to facilitate the creation of training courses that effectively convey learning content to learners without subjecting them to over- or under-challenges. The paper conducts a comparative analysis of employee qualification achieved through AQUA, experienced employee mentoring, and traditional paper-based learning methodologies. It evaluates both the learning quality and duration across these methods, thereby enabling the derivation of insights regarding the potential monetary advantages associated with the utilization of the AR-based qualification approach.