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The Logistics Trend Radar 7.0 - Insights. Shaping Tomorrow

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Trend Overview

The trend of Extended Reality, otherwise known as XR, encompasses the different experiential technology genres of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). AR enriches the physical world with purely visual digital screens or overlays in the right place at the right time; VR is a fully immersive digital experience requiring special headsets; and MR is at the intersection of both, infusing interactive virtual content within the physical world.

As the most basic form of extended reality (XR), AR has been around for over a decade allowing two-dimensional information to be displayed on top of real-world images. While mass market popularity of AR reached its peak in 2016 with the launch of interactive smartphone and tablet apps like Pokémon GO, it first appeared in enterprise applications as early as 2013 with the launch of Google Glass. DHL was an early adopter of the technology using wearable smart glasses for workflow guidance and seamless, hands-free remote support, completing first pilot projects in 2014.

With the development of VR, a fully immersive virtual experience could be achieved through headsets. The gaming market was an early adopter but, over time, many enterprises, including those in logistics, recognized the potential of 360° virtual content for training, especially for scenarios which are difficult or maybe even dangerous to replicate in reality.

Following this, the most groundbreaking XR developments in recent years have included MR. One example is the Microsoft HoloLens, a holographic device for business use. Another example, launched in early 2024, is the Apple Vision Pro, which introduced the term ‘spatial computing.’ With these devices, users experience a unified perceptual reality in which virtual three-dimensional (3D) content is spatially aligned with the real world. This creates a combined reality in which users can naturally interact with both virtual and real objects or content.

While these capabilities open up new possibilities to achieve truly interactive training content and simulations that allow for enhanced remote collaboration, further use cases where MR can offer real differentiation have yet to be implemented. In time, these capabilities will achieve much more than just enhancing the user experience.

Unit sales of XR headsets dropped significantly in 2022 and 2023, following a massive increase during the pandemic. More recently, announcements about new devices have helped renew the hype, especially the 2024 launch of the Apple Vision Pro, and analysts predict unit sales in 2024 will bounce back by more than 40% over 2023. It remains to be seen whether mainstream adoption will follow.

In logistics , some XR use cases are now well-established, mature solutions; for example, workflow guidance during the warehouse picking process. However, available XR technology has not yet been used to full potential.

While the wider application of XR within logistics will not revolutionize how businesses are run, it will most likely deliver many benefits. It will enhance the employee experience, increase safety, improve the effectiveness of training and onboarding, boost productivity by reducing error rates, and enable information sharing with employees wherever and whenever needed.

The reality-virtuality continuum offers users a wide range of experiences

Source: Carrasco, Moisés & Chen, Po-Han (2021): Application of mixed reality for improving architectural design comprehension effectiveness

Relevance to the Future of Logistics

Workflow Guidance

Making operational processes more efficient and less prone to human error as well as quickly onboarding new employees are crucial to success in the logistics industry. The use of AR or MR headsets with dedicated software enables companies to provide hands-free, step-by-step instructions to employees while they are performing operational tasks. Here at DHL, we were a first mover in using smart glasses for workflow guidance in the picking process, with pilot projects completed as early as 2014 and a productized solution scaled to more than 25 sites globally today.

What has worked for the picking process can easily be replicated in other processes – for example, upskilling labor so workers can provide more complex value-added services to customers and accelerating new employee onboarding time. With the increasing availability of quick-to-build no-code applications, it is now very easy to digitalize workflows and run them on smartphones, tablets, and smart glasses.

Using MR to guide employees through a workflow, via the Microsoft HoloLens for example, provides an enhanced user experience. But it is not always necessary to spatially relate 3D virtual objects to the real world to achieve what is needed.

Although there is some applicability for MR in logistics – for example, offering step-by-step instructions for maintenance of complex machinery – other suitable use cases are yet to be explored.

Remote Support & Collaboration

AR technology enables a remotely located expert to be connected to an on-site operator wearing smart glasses via a live video call; this allows both people to see the same things at the same time, and it keeps the operator’s hands free. With dedicated software, the expert can provide instructions, sketches, and annotations to guide the operator.

The combination of workflow guidance and remote support promises significant gains for maintenance, service, and any other process requiring expert knowledge which is not always available locally.

For example, the global energy company TotalEnergies uses RealWear smart glasses for faster equipment diagnosis and repair of refinery equipment. This solution makes specialist knowledge available via remote support calls, reducing travel time and therefore lowering the risk of production stoppages.

In addition to providing immediate access to expert knowledge, some software solutions are specifically designed for remote collaboration with a smart glasses user, and even allow for automated report generation for documentation purposes.

If higher levels of collaboration are required, it is interesting to consider using VR and MR headsets. With an MR solution, people in multiple locations can, for example, meet in a single virtual collaboration space and use 3D holograms to design products, solutions, and processes. Another example application is holding conferences and events in a fully virtual way, with delegates using VR headsets to meet as avatars in a virtual space.

Training & Simulation

While AR and MR add virtual content to reality, VR can be used to create immersive training experiences, simulating realistic scenarios in a fully virtual environment. Participants in a fully immersive VR training session learn four times faster than in a classroom setting, possibly because participants show a significantly higher emotional connection to virtual content and are far less distracted.

For years, DHL Express has been using VR as a training and engagement tool for employees and external audiences. In a gamified approach, people can learn how to load pallets and containers with shipments. Leveraging gamification, participants are awarded more points if they use space optimally and pay attention to special-handling labels.

Using VR for training is ideal to simulate a real-world situation, allowing people to learn and take decisions in a safe environment, and it can also ensure a fun experience.

Here at DHL, we see potential to use VR for operational health and safety (OHS) training within logistics , due to the global scalability of training content across operations globally. A few start-ups, such as Pixaera and Next World, have recognized this potential early on and are offering easily customizable, almost ready-to-use library modules to cover standard OHS topics such as line-of-fire training and working around forklifts.

With ongoing improvements in MR and spatial computing capabilities, virtual content is integrating into the real-world environment so successfully that the human brain perceives the two as a single, unified reality. This has significant potential for more hands-on training experiences to occur within the real world instead of a fully immersive space.

Challenges

Challenge 1

Most XR use cases involve specific hardware; used at scale this requires significant investments and may require onboarding if employees are not yet familiar with these devices.

Challenge 2

Time, effort, and often significant investment are needed to create fully immersive content and workflow content; however, this barrier decreases as more and more platforms support no-code app building.

Challenge 3

Mobile networks may not offer the coverage or bandwidth that applications need for live connectivity; this limits the ability to pull data from a system via live video call connectivity and to live stream fully immersive 3D content.

Most XR use cases involve specific hardware; used at scale this requires significant investments and may require onboarding if employees are not yet familiar with these devices.
Time, effort, and often significant investment are needed to create fully immersive content and workflow content; however, this barrier decreases as more and more platforms support no-code app building.
Mobile networks may not offer the coverage or bandwidth that applications need for live connectivity; this limits the ability to pull data from a system via live video call connectivity and to live stream fully immersive 3D content.

Outlook

Here at DHL, we expect new XR applications to emerge in the near future. Following the launch of Apple’s Vision Pro developers are already working on Apple’s new platform. It will be interesting to see if Apple can generate sufficient hype around XR to enable mass adoption of MR and spatial computing by consumers and by users in the industrial context.

With more and more software companies offering no-code solutions and ready-to-customize library content, we already see one of the entry hurdles to creating XR experiences disappearing.

Further development towards improved remote collaboration by making use of spatial computing technology is likely to take global collaboration among team members within an organization to the next level.

This trend should be PASSIVELY monitored,with use cases in some applications that can already be addressed today.

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Sources

  1. CNBC (2023): VR market shrinking as Meta pours billions of dollars into metaverse
  2. Circana (2023): New Devices Increase the Appeal of Extended Reality
  3. Computerworld (2024): 2024 will be a big year for AR/VR, but mainstream adoption will lag