How Augmented Reality Kept Woodring Machining in Business

Woodring Machining is a family-owned machine shop in Ogden, UT that has been in operation since Harold Woodring opened for business in 1920, after returning from serving in World War I. They have seen many ups and downs over the nearly a hundred years they have been in business, but perhaps their closest call came last year, when one of their employees suffered a serious injury, and their insurance premium jumped to more than their entire profit for the previous year.

Fortunately, they had a long-standing relationship with their insurer, and were told that if they could show convincing evidence as to what steps they had taken to improve safety, and why such accidents would be much less likely in the future, the premium would be reduced accordingly.

The Safety Officer, Dan Cross, was assigned to work full time on figuring out how to accomplish this feat, and was promised the support of management and all employees. As Dan explained it,

“I was told that if nothing changed, we would probably not be able to keep running for more than two more years. Woodring Machining is a solid company, with a good line of credit and loyal customers, but we couldn’t raise prices enough to make up the difference in our insurance premium without them looking elsewhere.

“At first, I considered more safety training, but our employees are already well-trained and diligently try to observe our rules and standards. It seemed that something radically different was needed.

“About three days after I was assigned this responsibility, one of our employees, named Alex, came to me and suggested that we look into augmented reality, or AR. Alex is a nerd who is fascinated with this stuff, and referred me to Acme AR, who just announced a helmet that he felt would work for us.

“As we looked over the capabilities, I decided it couldn’t hurt to check them out, so I agreed to have him contact Acme and ask them to give us a demo.

“I was blown away! The Acme sales rep, Bill Gonzales, is a down-to-earth guy who really knows his stuff, and he brought four helmets, so we could see how they can allow the wearers to interact.

“First of all, from the outside the helmet looks much like a motorcycle helmet with a full face shield, but it only weighs about 2.5 pounds. It is big enough to fit any head up to XXL, but when you put it on, it automatically senses the size and shape of your head, and air bladders fill to give a snug (but very comfortable!) fit and the ear protectors fit around your ears such that they cut out nearly all external sounds. Of course, they are headphones as well, and the helmet has an external microphone that picks up sounds and transmits them to the headphones, but blocks anything that is too loud.

“One of my biggest concerns was that the helmets would be too hot – machine shops are not motorcycles – but there is a fan built into the back of the helmet that pulls air in along the chin and jaw, directs it up over the face, over the top of the head, and out the back. The fan speed increases as it senses that the wearer is beginning to sweat or overheat, and filters can be added to the air inlets such that dust does not get sucked in. And even though the fit is snug, Acme has a proprietary webbing design over the top of the head that allows the air to flow freely, evaporating the sweat and keeping the user cool.

“There’s a microphone right in front of your mouth, and it links to an external speaker so you can talk to people around you without having to remove the helmet. If they are also wearing helmets, it will transmit by Bluetooth to them so you can talk to each other while keeping your helmets on, and it is easy to hear and understand, even in noisy environments. The helmets are also connected via shop WiFi to an AI name Helmut, so that the wearers can give commands and ask for information, such as, ‘Helmut, call my wife’, or ‘Helmut, what’s the weather outside?’ or ‘Helmut, put on my playlist’. This is all hands-free, and is one of the features our workers like best.

“Back to safety. The helmets exceed all ANSI and OSHA requirements for our environment, with respect to hardhat, eye-protection, and hearing protection. But let me talk a moment about the augmented reality aspect. The inside of the face-shield is also a data screen. We expect to implement a lot of work-related features in the future, but already it will warn you if someone is approaching from outside your field of view, or if there is anything moving or dangerous around you.

“Also, the helmet monitors the user for signs of sleepiness, any sort of drug impairment, or even such things as heart attack or stroke. How Acme implements this is proprietary, although in general it watches eye motion, breathing, pulse, and other variables, but we have had the helmets alert us to a few of our workers who showed up for work in less than acceptable condition. And if a worker begins to get drowsy while operating machinery, Helmut will speak to him and advise him to take a break. Our insurance company really likes this feature!

“We made the decision to invest in these helmets for all workers and visitors. It is now a requirement that every person who enters our work area must be wearing a helmet, and we have placed sensors to raise an alarm immediately if there are any exceptions. And Helmut, our AI, knows exactly who is in the shop and where they are at every moment. A worker can say, ‘Helmut, chemical spill!’ and Helmut knows exactly where it is and sends out the evacuation alarm to everyone, including an arrow on their face-shield to guide them to the safest evacuation route.

“If a worker goes down for more than a second or two, a medical alarm goes out and we immediately check on the worker and respond as appropriate. If telemetry from the helmet confirms a medical emergency, Helmut will call an ambulance without human intervention, saving valuable time.

“I could go on for hours, but let me share one last experience. We have run evacuation drills twice a year for over ten years, and it always took between two and two-and-a-half minutes from the time the alarm sounded until all workers were at the assembly points, and several minutes longer to confirm that everyone was out and accounted for. Our training has always been that they should shut down or make safe their equipment, and head to the nearest exit.

“With the helmets, it is basically the same, except that now they are to follow the arrow to leave the building. Three weeks ago we ran another emergency evacuation drill.

“I poured a mug of water just inside the main entrance to simulate a chemical spill, and said, ‘Helmut, chemical spill!’ He sounded the alarm, and guided each worker to the safest alternate evacuation route. From the time I sounded the alarm until the last worker was out of the building was 63 seconds – less than half our previous average time – and we knew, via Helmut, that everyone was out at that very moment. We invited a rep from our insurance company to observe, and his report so impressed his bosses that they have agreed that, as of the end of this year, our rates will revert to what we were paying before.

“We changed to Acme’s helmets for safety reasons, but one of the most impressive things is that our workers absolutely love the new system. Normally PPE is a hassle, and it’s always a temptation to take it off ‘for just a moment’, but now the guys don’t even want to take it off when they go on break. And I swear that if you took a poll, Helmut would be voted the ‘Most Valuable Employee’! These helmets are expensive if you just look at the cost relative to other safety gear, but it hasn’t been even three months since we started using them, and I don’t think we could go back to the way we were before! We’d have a strike on our hands.

“All the guys agree, though, that the most important command that Helmut needs to learn is, ‘Helmut, scratch my nose!’

Bill says Acme is working on that one.”

For more information on these helmets, and on Helmut, contact Acme AR at…