How PBC Linear saved 97% in training time with Magic Leap 2

Written by Simon Hunt | Dec 14, 2023 2:13:01 PM

Augmented Reality is becoming a very valuable tool in the manufacturing industry and a recent case study from PBC Linear showcases just that.

PBS Linear , Magic Leap and Tactile Technologies

By using Magic Leap and Taqtile Technologies, PBC Linear were able to solve some of today's biggest manufacturing challenges and here's how...

The PBC Linear problem Magic Leap solved

Tim LeCrone, PBC Linear's Manufacturing Director, had a simple set of issues:

Manufacturing costs were too high.
They wasted too much raw material training people (who made mistakes, whilst they learnt).
It took 6 weeks to train a new machinist.
They lost an experienced machinist for 6 weeks training the new one!

Tim and his team had a great training program, which they had split into bite sized chunks, his issue was deploying that training.

In came Magic Leap and Taqtile Technologies. Magic Leap with their Augmented Reality headsets and Taqtile Technologies with the training module to present the training in the headset, to the new machinist.

The results were impressive, but let's understand why...

Firstly, the new employees first experience with Augmented Reality headsets was at PBC Linear. It was a new tool, a new experience and change always comes with a degree of trepidation.

Here's the video clip showing how the new employee relaxed when they realised they would be just following instructions on the Magic Leap device.

The Result?

The employees relaxed when they realised they could:

See the training instructions on the screen
Work the machine at the same time

The Impact?

Training times for each new machinist dropped from 6 weeks to 1 day, removing 97% of the training time.

The experienced machinist was released to work at his/her machine, increasing productivity.

The training managers time was saved hiring each new employee, no more 6 weeks of induction.

Because the new employee learnt quickly, the wastage normally associated with new employees making mistakes disappeared, cutting manufacturing costs by 20%. Here's the video clip showing the savings and efficiency.

Savings Summary

$7,200 Training machinist savings (6 weeks cut to 1 day)

$6,800 Training manager savings (6 weeks cut to 1 day)

$5760 New employee training time savings

Total $19,200 saved per new machinist

See the video and case study here

The Return On Investment (ROI) in Magic Leap was an incredible 5.7x in one new machinist!

That's a very impressive result, with LeCrone noting that Magic Leap and Taqtile Technologies enabled PBC Linear to improve overall quality, support each new member of staff with the best training and accelerate performance.

Magic Leap save US Industry $6bn

According to Google there are 348,379 machinists in the US alone. Let's expand those savings and project the economics on the US economy.

348,379 machinists.
Saving $19,200 on reduced downtime of experienced staff and reduced training costs per new starter.
That means there is a potential market of $6bn in the Training Use Case , in the USA.
No wonder the Saudi Investment fund just gave Magic Leap a further $578m to fund enterprise scaling.