David González Gregorio (IVECO): ‘Our Virtual Reality, which meant a notable change of paradigm’

David González Gregorio, Head of Environment at IVECO Valladolid, explains the advances in safety, sustainability, efficiency and productivity thanks to the use of virtual reality. Artificial intelligence will be the next step.

AutoRevista.- After listening to your interview in the podcast ‘Historias en carretera’, I understand that virtual reality has become an essential axis for both new operators and veterans in terms of safety at work. How does this improvement in this aspect affect efficiency and productivity?

David González.- As you rightly point out, we have been using Virtual Reality as a training tool for new hires since 2017, using our two safety and environmental applications. But to answer your question, at IVECO Valladolid we cannot conceive of efficiency or productivity without something much more fundamental: safety at work, which is the first premise we take into account. And for this, it means working in a safe environment where each person sees their safety as something primordial and in which they have a lot to contribute, our Virtual Reality, which meant a notable change of paradigm. Without accidents we are more efficient.

AR.- From your responsibility in the environmental field, how can virtual reality or its combination with augmented reality detect points of improvement in aspects such as industrial waste management?
 

D.G.- It is only now that we are really beginning to realise the enormous potential of these advanced tools in the industrial world. It should not be forgotten that the first applications were designed for the world of video games. That is why we at IVECO feel like pioneers in discovering new uses, even though it was in 2016. Improving differentiated waste separation would be one of them. And when we share it with students and young people, as we have already done on several occasions here in our factory, we feel that we are sharing a good environmental practice with society.

AR.- In the podcast you also discuss logistics and warehouse management applications. What is the projection of these technologies and other digitalisation tools in this field?
 

D.G.- Linking to the previous question, in 2018 we realised the importance of the optimal design of a warehouse from the management of the material to the point of view of a forklift operator. Traditionally, warehouses have been designed based on the safety requirements of shelves, material consumption, the classification of parts according to their cost, volume, supply policy, etc., but never from the perspective of the forklift driver who has to operate within said warehouse, that is, from the user, who in this case is our client and at the same time is our worker. That was the reason for developing a Virtual Reality application for warehouses to perceive through this immersive reality what a warehouse would be like, how much available space we would have between aisles with forklifts circulating, how to avoid blind spots for the driver of said forklifts and how to prevent accidents by avoiding crossings with pedestrian walkways, placing shelves with high-turnover material in areas to facilitate access to them... etc. In short, it is about building a virtual warehouse, but exact to the real one, saving time and avoiding any unforeseen events.

AR.- The next step would be the combination with augmented reality (mixed reality). What are the expectations in this regard?
 

D.G.- The future is no longer the future and is now the present. We have seen applications in preventive maintenance for complex and non-routine operations, in the mapping of electrical cabinets or installations. Even when it comes to accessing machine documentation in situ in a simple way. At the moment, we are experimenting with new technologies such as, for example, glasses that work with spatial computing, that is, combining virtual reality with augmented reality. The range of possibilities is practically infinite, but development costs are still high, so in the coming years we will be massively applying augmented reality in our factories.

AR.- How do you plan to use artificial intelligence tools in the medium or long term in production, design, engineering, quality, logistics and sustainability activities?

D.G.- In a few years, artificial intelligence will be like Excel, scientific calculators years ago, or even mobile phones. AI will be fully integrated into our daily lives to save us management time and be more efficient. The big difference is that, since the technological boom, many technologies have taken away tasks and activities with little added value or have simply improved communication. With AI, we will have to be aware of the different regulations adopted by each country, we will save work with a lot of added value. So, if we use it responsibly, it can make us much more productive. Today, it is already used to summarize a chain of emails in several languages, to make verbal reports of meetings, small programs in different programming languages, to create images, etc.

In the manufacturing field, it has to help us simulate future processes and scenarios, for example, through digital twins where as many variables as we can imagine are integrated and, not that it helps us, or that it is the AI ​​itself that chooses the best possible scenario. For example, when introducing the future production lineset, taking into account: line saturation at each work station, each worker and each operation, ergonomics, quality, parts in the warehouse and parts in transit from suppliers with their estimated arrival time, etc. We will have an infinite number of combined variables as input that will help us to automatically “choose” the best output as a result to minimize the hidden losses in our processes.

AR. Has the Valladolid plant, as a pioneer in the use of virtual reality in IVECO Group, become a benchmark for its application in a larger number of the company's plants, as has happened in Madrid and France?
 

D.G.- At IVECO Valladolid we began our journey with these technologies in the distant 2016, which from today's perspective seems like a geological time, and yet not so many years have passed. But it is true that we are committed to the challenge of building an immersive tool to improve the effectiveness of safety training that others have then taken advantage of. Indeed, today we have applications of this type in other IVECO Group plants, such as Madrid or Bourbon-Lancy (France), with excellent ideas developed to improve the training of workers, and which we then share among ourselves. But that is the game, and the endless path of continuous improvement, copying what works in other plants and having others copy what works for us.

AR.- What is the assessment of the results obtained since the start of the application and what are the objectives until the end of the decade?

D.G.- The quality of the training of workers has improved, understood not only in terms of knowledge transfer, but also in the perception that people who go through our Virtual Reality have. And this is confirmed by the questionnaires that are completed at the end of each training, going from 63% satisfaction with traditional training - classroom presentation - to 85% when we also incorporate Virtual Reality. Therefore, we have been surprised by the power that these technologies have, and we continue to take advantage of this inertia to advance into new horizons. The objective is to increase the number of applications and extend it to all spheres of production, not only for training but also for the design of new products and their assembly in a more efficient manner.

Lea esta entrevista en castellano

Interview published in AutoRevista 2.395