Virtual Reality for occupational risk prevention

Find out how virtual reality is helping in this sector

An additional use in industry and training is to ensure that the trainee incorporates the self-care measures and risks inherent in their role in an efficient, cost-effective and, of course, safe manner.

In a traditional occupational hazard or healthcare teaching process, we usually listen to a theoretical lecture from an expert, then practice on a computer and perhaps on a disused machine.

With this method, the trainee retained 15% of what he heard from the instructor, then went to the job site and needed to have a supervisor observe him until he approved his performance and several weeks later achieved productivity.

With Virtual Reality training, the trainee was able to do all this in a simulator that could take him one hour, repeating as many times as necessary, retaining up to 80% of what was taught by practicing directly.

Occupational Health and Risk Management

ISO standards such as 45001:2018 deal with the use and management systems to improve health in the workplace, such as continuous improvement, compliance with legal requirements and the achievement of OH&S objectives.

Informally, many organizations have their own ways of advancing employee training, metrics for achieving objectives, interest in avoiding accidents that cause injuries, fatalities and process stoppages.

All this implies a huge expense in instructors, work spaces, reduced productivity due to stopped machinery, wasted inputs, doctors and funerals, and even lawsuits.

If we add up all these amounts and compare them to the cost of developing a simulator, we will clearly find that it pays for itself after a few months and in the following years it becomes an additional cost savings.

The impact of poor training

A very important one is to avoid costs related to lawsuits for damages caused to customers during the traditional execution of the business, due to the poor performance of employees

On the other hand, the state entities that oversee the performance of companies can punish them with sanctions for carelessness, labor incidents that could have been controlled or damages to third parties.

Employees who are injured in the performance of their duties can sue the company because their training was deficient and indirectly caused them harm for the rest of their lives.

Production lines are stopped with each accident while investigations are carried out or the entire chain can be resumed. This causes losses due to low productivity.

With each accident caused by bad training, inputs are wasted, machinery is damaged and even finished products are damaged.

When serious accidents occur, insurers increase the value of their insurance premiums to companies.

Customers who receive defective products or do not receive them due to delays in the process may miss out or reduce their purchases.

According to the ILO, more than 380,000 lives are lost each year and more than 374 million accidents occur.

If through a better training process these figures can be reduced, then surely the cost of development will be a wise investment.

Modes of use of VR in occupational hazards

A first way to use virtual reality is to show a 360º video production or simulation of the process on the glasses, in which the trainee only observes the process and can repeat it indefinitely.

Another way is to use the remote controls that come with the glasses to develop an interactive experience in which the trainee presses buttons or moves levers, feels the vibration of the tool and performs the task.

In both cases, the person sees how the task is performed in a realistic scenario, with the actual lighting of the workplace, the equipment and tools, and even the sounds that occur.

This increases the retention of what is learned by at least 25%; when the task is imitated with the goggle controls, muscle memory is developed and the learner will retain as much as 80% of the content.

Benefits of virtual reality for occupational risk prevention

Thanks to all of the above, the team of instructors will be able to dedicate more time to content development, being more productive than ever by being able to support the teaching and task improvement process.

Trainees will be able to arrive at their workstation with more knowledge than in the previous method, which will make them more productive from the first day of work.

Supervisors will be able to spend more time observing and improving more employees, making the entire work chain more productive in less time.

In short, workplace accidents are reduced, productivity is increased, production line stoppages are reduced, and wastage of consumables and spare parts saves money.

At Two Reality we have been developing simulators for all industries for 12 years, helping companies to optimize their workflow and operations.