THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 6, 2020 |R9
JOURNAL REPORT|WORKPLACE TECHNOLOGY
A
re new factory technologies replacing hu-
man workers or are they giving them ex-
tra abilities so they can focus more on
what makes humans irreplaceable in
plants? A look at the latest crop of tech-
nologies transforming factories suggests
the answer is both—at least for now. • Some new tools
are helping employees work more safely and efficiently.
But others are designed to slash labor costs, such as
having machines—unassisted by any human—make
parts overnight or move an engine across a factory
floor. • Helping drive the advances is the next genera-
tion of cellular technology known as 5G, which will en-
able tens of thousands of machines, robots and products
to be connected to the same network at higher speeds
than ever before.objects in the real world
are enhanced with com-
puter-generated informa-
tion.
Huntington Ingalls In-
dustriesInc. is using the
technology at a shipyard in
Newport News, Va., where
workers build portions of
huge military ships on land
and then hoist them into
the ship. The temporary
support structures that en-
sure those segments stay
intact when they are being
moved were once painted a
different color, so workers
would know to remove
them as the ship started to
take shape.
“We would paint it and
then we would completely
lose track of it,” says
Chief Information Officer
Bharat Amin.
Now, employees use tab-
let computers to digitally
identify the beams. The
temporary structures light
up on the screen, which is
faster and more accurate
than hunting for them us-
ing design drawings, Mr.
Amin says.
Other companies are us-
ing virtual reality to speed
up training times and re-
duce production stoppages.
Fiber maker Invista, owned
by Koch Industries,has
created a virtual-reality
training tool to teach work-
ers how to string hot nylon
threads through machinery.
Invista says about 10A new dimension
Some factories are turning
to 3-D imaging to simplify
and improve quality control.
While cumbersome man-
ual inspections used to be
the norm, many manufac-
turers now rely on hand-
held 3-D scanners to ensure
finished products aren’t too
tall or too wide.
Willman IndustriesInc.,
a foundry in Cedar Grove,
Wis., that produces metal
castings, is one such com-pany.
The scanner “shows you the entire
surface of the casting and how it var-
ies from the nominal model,” says
sales manager Harold Hunter.
Willman says the scanners are so
easy to master, it can hire temporary
workers to perform inspections, which
frees up its higher-paid skilled work-
ers to focus on more-profitable tasks.Mr. Huffordis a reporter for The
Wall Street Journal in Chicago.
Email him at
[email protected].Boutique networks
Factories can be Wi-Fi cold-
spots. With many nooks and
crannies and obstacles that
block signals, factory floors
aren’t well suited for wire-
less signals. “There is a lot
of equipment, a lot of ma-
chines, a lot of metal,” says
Michael Berendsen, vice
president for information
technology at appliance
makerWhirlpoolCorp.
To solve that problem,
some manufacturers are
building boutique 5G net-
works inside their plants. 5G
relies on a larger number of
smaller antennas than cur-
rent cellular networks, which
makes it challenging to de-
ploy across cities but ideal
for covering factory floors.
Whirlpool is testing a 5G
network across 200,000
square feet at a factory in
Clyde, Ohio. A couple of
dozen autonomous vehicles
that ferry parts around the
plant rely on Wi-Fi and stop
moving when they lose con-
nection to the network.
Whirlpool is converting some
of those vehicles to 5G, aim-
ing to reduce costly stop-
pages that can delay wash-
ing-machine production.
“We believe 5G will pro-
vide better coverage and be
more consistent,” Mr. Ber-
endsen says.Augmented vision
Some firms are embracing
DARREN HAUCK FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)augmented reality, in whichAt its iron
foundry in
Wisconsin
(above and
left), Willman
Industries
uses scanners
to produce
3-D images of
the metal
castings it
makes.people have been trained
on the tool so far, learning
how to weave in about four
weeks versus the normal
five months.Smart hands
Wearable devices and sen-
sors—which have gotten
cheaper, smaller and
lighter—are allowing some
factory employees to work
faster and more safely.
Some manufacturers use
sensors to track workers’
exposure to sound and heat
that can lead to injuries
over time. Others are test-
ing sensors designed to
stop workers from operat-
ing heavy equipment if it
detects they are too sleepy.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa
TechnikAG, a provider of
maintenance and repair
services to airlines, is roll-
ing out gloves with built-in
scanners at a Florida ware-
house to speed up the de-
livery of aircraft parts to
customers. The gloves vi-
brate when a priority pack-
age arrives, so workers
know to handle it first.
Employees prefer the
technology, called ProGlove,
to hand-held bar-code scan-
ners because it is lighter
and easier to use, says Har-
ald Kolbe, head of digital
innovation at Lufthansa
Technik’s logistic services
division.
ProGlovesays the gloves
can cut up to four seconds
off the scanning of each
package, which adds up for
companies that handle
thousands of orders a day.Unattended running
A new generation of ma-
chines equipped with bet-
ter-quality sensors and
other embedded technolo-
gies is allowing some facto-
ries to produce parts with-
out a single worker present.
Wagner MachineInc., a
Norton, Ohio, manufacturer
of custom metal parts, has
invested about $1.2 million
in new metal-forming
equipment to enable unat-
tended running, says Presi-
dent Courtney Wagner.
Once set up by skilled
workers, the new machine
is capable of making parts
for about 20 hours a day,
including overnight when
no one is present. That is
about twice as long as the
company’s traditional ma-
chines, which must be run
by human operators. The
company says the new
equipment will allow it to
quickly boost production
when business heats up.
“When you want to take
advantage of those feast
moments, lights-out manu-
facturing seemed like a way
to go,” Ms. Wagner says.BYAUSTENHUFFORD5G Will Transform the Factory Floor
The impact on workers?
It’s a mixed bag.Brilliantminds.
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