Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1479583
HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | September 26, 2022 43 FOCUS: MANUFACTURING Funding your business's full potential. Grow your business with the help of our experienced commercial lending professionals. Contact our commercial lending officers at liberty-bank.com/commercial-lending Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender. All loans are subject to credit and underwriting approval. Genny Fonseca, director of strategic planning for the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board, tests out a game-based job simulation on a virtual reality headset. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED and offer training tools that give students the ability to practice and improve their techniques without the costs and risks associated with raw materials," Volz said. "We want to give them a chance to hone their skills without any risk involved." Schools and companies also use VRSim's products to showcase different career paths and upskill and train workers, she said. Manufacturing and trades-related industries aren't VRSim's only focus. The company announced in April it was piloting a certified nursing assis- tant virtual reality simulator. Volz said VR technology has become more prevalent in recent years because the pandemic exacerbated workforce development challenges. 'Build before you build' At Sikorsky in Stratford, the helicopter manufacturer has been undergoing what it calls a "digital inte- gration and transition" of its product life cycles for years. Sikorsky Vice President of Enterprise Business Transforma- tion Mike Ambrose said that process essentially means connecting data related to everything from an idea based on what customers need to the manufacturing and creation of a product. He said the company has invested more than $1 billion in digital technologies at its factories in the last six years to allow computer programs, machines, and employees to better share data about what they're working on. That's where virtual reality comes in. "If you think about seeing people with goggles playing tennis or golf, we have a version of that, which is much more sophisticated and integrated that essentially takes a representation of an aircraft," Ambrose said. Sikorsky has a large area dedi- cated to its virtual reality space, but the technology is also portable and can be moved around. Sikorsky uses it to allow workers, engineers and customers to look at product designs so they can offer feedback. Ambrose gave the example of using a virtual helicopter model to ensure a soldier of any height can adequately reach components and other parts in the aircraft. Virtual reality technology allows Sikorsky to confront potential issues in product design much earlier in the development process, resulting in significant time savings, he said. As a result, aircraft performance and build that the company previ- ously saw in its 100th aircraft, is now seen in its 20th. "Virtual reality is all stuff we do before we build aircraft, before we design aircraft," Ambrose said. "We find (issues) before we even finish the design."