Train your technicians remotely

Train your technicians remotely - a project focused on the development of an innovative computer platform based on virtual reality training employees on the latest HOMAG Group and KUKA Robotics technologies in the furniture industry.

We have started our project in 2017 with a very passionate and young team at MOS Consult, with the sole purpose of easy, quick and affordable training and requalification of employees in the furniture industry. Based on our long term experience in the furniture manufacturing as a partner of HOMAG Group, imos AG and KUKA Robotics we know that the training of the employees to work with machines and equipment, as well as utilizing and servicing them is the core function of the professional machine maintenance. Expanding our team non-stop it was our goal as well to find an educational platform for our own employees.

Thanks to our vast experience in the computer graphics, rendering and virtual reality applications, we based our solution on the Unreal Engine technology as a platform for our development. Through Unreal Engine we have developed the simulation platform where the users can train themselves without the need of professional trainers, specialized courses and presence of other employees.

The platform works in different experience modes:

Virtual presentation of a "walkthrough" type in a showroom, equipped with HOMAG machines and KUKA robots for furniture manufacturing and interior design
Design and planning of a manufacturing facilities, where the users can design their virtual their factory, position the equipment and check the selected layout meeting the best workflow requirements
Operators training where the users select the machine types (for example drilling machines), afterwards the exact HOMAG machine model and at the end the scenario on which they want to be trained. Example scenarios are loading of parts on the machines, aggregates settings, change of edge coils, reloading of the label printer, tool change and other operations, which the operators are doing on a daily basis
Mechanics/Technicians training for maintenance and repairs of the equipment, where the users select an exact machine model and repair scenario, for example cleaning of a glue pod, spindle change on a drilling aggregate and many more.

The simulation software works on Windows devices, as a Desktop application and also supports HTC Vive Virtual Reality. The main target of the project is to deliver an online platform which is fully virtualized and working from a web browser, giving access to each employee of our customers and partners to train themselves on their personal devices, even is he is not physically in the company, as well as virtual reality experience. The advantage working in virtual reality is that the users can experience the whole process in real size layouts simulating their daily workflow to the smallest detail.

For demonstration purposes we have built a demo training center equipped with HTC Vive Pro, where everyone can test the platform and go through the complete training program. Our customers and partners can use this opportunity and train their employees in our facility or build up their own training center.

The users target group of MOS Consult at the moment is:

Students willing to work in the furniture industry, but not having any real life experience. Our company organizes different training courses with special student conditions.
Employees or future employees of manufacturers, which need training at operations with specific equipment
Technicians which need to maintain different types and generations of machines, but don't have them in the showroom
Partners of the HOMAG Group and KUKA worldwide, which do not need to travel to the headquarters in Germany for specialized courses

The advantages of the system over the live training:

The users can train themselves without the need of specialized assistance from colleagues
Everyone can go through the courses even at home at any time of the day, without being physically in the company
Remote training on different languages, where users can select virtual assitants leading them through the complete process with voice commands and/or text instructions based on their preferences. The multi-language options are unlimited
Tests and training in real size layouts on all machine generations and modifications, without having them physically in the training center
Virtual assistant which leads you through the course and blocks you from moving on if all steps are not executed properly, guaranteeing that the trainee understood the current task
Repeatability - the users can repeat the courses unlimited times

In line with the world globalization and digitization of all branches we believe that the conventional way of training employees is too expensive, slow and unaffordable, leading to lack of skilled employees in the furniture industry, as well as engineers servicing the installed equipment. The alternative ways of studying like imos AG Online Academy, HOMAG Academy, KUKA xPert provide the basic information required for the trainees, but the text form and video files are not enough for maximum perception of the manufacturing processes.

Our vision is for our much better and reachable platform, which will speed up the training process and make it much more efficient. Follow us online for more information regarding the project in the next couple of weeks. We will be happy to get any feedback from you.

#StayHome and #TrainInVR