Google Glass Enters The Manufacturing Sector (npr.org)

NPR recently profiled one of the 100 factory workers now using Google Glass at the agricultural equipment manufacturer AGCO. An anonymous reader quotes their report: Google Glass tells her what to do should she forget, for example, which part goes where. "I don't have to leave my area to go look at the computer every time I need to look up something," she says. With Google Glass, she scans the serial number on the part she's working on. This brings up manuals, photos or videos she may need. She can tap the side of headset or say "OK Glass" and use voice commands to leave notes for the next shift worker...

Peggy Gullick, business process improvement director with AGCO, says the addition of Google Glass has been "a total game changer." Quality checks are now 20 percent faster, she says, and it's also helpful for on-the-job training of new employees... Tiffany Tsai, who writes about technology, says it's one of a growing number of companies -- including General Electric and Boeing -- testing it out... Companies working in the health care, entertainment and energy industries are listed as some of the Google Glass certified partners.
AGCO plans to have 200 workers using Google Glass by the end of this year.

Comments

Re:well, how about a time/motion study

[TWX]

In AGCO's case it looks like they make products that are not assembly-line and not otherwise terribly automated simply because agricultural products are not made in sufficient volume to justify the costs to automate. Too much per-customer customization, too little volume, and the machines are very expensive so it's kind of hard to try to force customers into not customizing.

My biggest concern with things like on-demand lookup is that it may lead to people thinking they're more knowledgeable or capable than they are; that reference substitutes for experience. I've seen it firsthand where people in the IT field think they're all-that but they really don't know what they're doing and are so reliant on reference materials that when the system behaves other than how it's supposed to they are unable to cope.

Hopefully AGCO won't have this problem, especially when they're applying the technology to manufacturing in particular.

For me as a service tech, this would be brilliant

[MindPrison]

So many times I have to "google" a part number to find out what it does, oh...it's an 24 Bit AD converter, now let me find the datasheet.

Imagine if I could just look at the PCB as I do normally when searching and fault-finding, and have a Video-overlay with simple specs on each chip and device I am looking at, and perhaps with a few blinks just bring up the datasheets and quickly close them again.

Are you kidding me? This is SUPER useful!

Re:Discountined?

[paiute]

So I'm just going to start hitting that random dude that plops himself next to me at the urinal

I went to play golf one morning by myself and on the first tee I saw another single golfer who came up and asked if I wanted to play a round with him. It was fucking Jack Nicklaus! So I said yes, thank you, and we proceeded to play. He had a cooler full of beer, so I gradually relaxed and we were having a fine afternoon. We get to the 3rd tee and he excuses himself to go pee. He comes back and there is a yellow stripe right across the knees of his white pants. I say nothing, because it's fucking Jack Nicklaus. We play a couple more holes, he goes off to relieve himself again. Again he comes back, this time with another yellow stripe across his pant leg. I think this is odd, but it's Jack Nicklaus. I say nothing. This happens a third time, at the 10th hole. This time I can't contain myself. I say casually, "Hey Jack, how come every time you go to the men's room you come back with a yellow stripe across your pants?" He looks resigned and annoyed and says, "Because every time there is a guy using the urinal next to me who eventually looks up surprised and turns to me and says 'Hey, you're Jack Nicklaus!"