Technological advances, whether Industry 4.0 or AR/VR, do not solve a decades-old productivity dilemma: Short-term efficiency in production lines is not necessarily compatible with long-term adaptability.
Augmented Reality on Factory Floor (Source: AGCO)
By Junko Yoshida
What’s at stake?
The novelty of AR and/or VR goggles tempts corporations to embrace the technology to bolster worker productivity. What many companies overlook is that short-term productivity gains achieved through technology may come at the cost of workers’ long-term ability to innovate.
Surely, technology can improve worker efficiency in manufacturing – it always has. This truism helps explain why so many corporations are eyeing the new tools of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR and VR) as the next big thing to streamline and improve their production lines. But equally significant is the impact of a given technology on human behavior.