AR on the Assembly Line: A Vision for Connected Workers

In this episode, AREA Executive Director Mark Sage chats with Alan Markworth, Senior Manager of the Monozukuri Skills Promotion Centre at Denso Manufacturing UK.

Alan explains how Denso is driving measurable impact from AR in its manufacturing environments. From remote expert assistance to on-demand self-help tools for frontline workers, Denso is applying AR where it solves real operational challenges. Alan walks through how his team identifies specific use cases, validates requirements, and ensures that the technology supports—not disrupts—existing workflows.

The conversation highlights lessons learned from deploying AR at scale, including how Denso measures value beyond just efficiency gains. Alan describes how AR improves worker confidence, reduces downtime, and enables faster knowledge transfer in complex production settings. His practical experience offers a roadmap for any enterprise looking to move AR out of the lab and into the line of fire.

Illustration from the Denso Global website. Please visit the AREA.

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Hello everybody, it's Mark Sage,
Executive Director of theAR for Enterprise Alliance,
or better known as the AREA.
And we're here with ourlatest Fireside Chat,
where we speak to industryexperts who have been deploying
or are technology providersaround the XR space.
So I'm really excited and pleased towelcome Alan. Alan Markworth from Denso.

(00:33):
Alan, welcome to the AREA Fireside Chat.
Congratulations on all the workthat you've done deploying XR.
I know you're going totell us about it now,
so maybe if you just spend asecond or two introducing yourself.
Thanks, Mark. Yes, myname is Alan Markworth.
I'm the senior manager at theMonozukuri Skills Promotion Center based

(00:54):
in the UK here in Telford.
So my journey with AR started a numberof years ago with our strategy to
how do we get skills and retainknowledge and deploy in an agile
centric way. So here we've lookedat alternative technologies,
how we can leverage human skilland intelligent technology.

(01:15):
Amazing. Thanks Alan.
So perhaps tell us a little bit moredetail about how Denso's leveraging AR
technology to enhance their operations.
Yeah, of course.
So I guess we werelooking at how do we deal
with short stops from machine downtime.
So one of the biggestproblems that we were,
how do we get the right people to theright place at the right time and actually

(01:39):
able to recover from these shortstopsbut also do it in a systematic way.
That means we have expertise butalso a method of confirmation.
So the AR solution where it be an
idea in our heads that maybe we couldbring the expert knowledge to an
operator that could maybe doa small return to standard job

(02:02):
following a standardizedprocess. If they were stuck,
maybe they could contact an expert,
but also there would be a method ofbeing able to confirm that the work was
done to the correct standard.
So these were some of the criteriathat we used to look for AR
solutions.
Amazing.
So kind of a combination ofremote assistance inspection and

(02:26):
of self-help bit. I thinkit's really important,
and you did articulate very welland that companies are actually very
clear on what problemsthey're trying to solve.
Otherwise you can get into thiskind of playground situation.
How did you find out about therequirements, if you don't mind me asking,
what kind of process did you go through?
Oh, sure. I mean, we'vespoke to everybody.

(02:48):
Done our due diligence fromjust our own research to,
we dealt with many universities,
had a look at some startups.
We got in some test bedstrying to understand what the
market was bringing and wherethe research was being done.
So I don't mind name dropping.
We did some work with FieldUniversity to understand technology

(03:13):
and what could be leveraged.Really interesting.
We learned terms such as digital chaosand like you say is if you try and
digitize everything it can causeyou as many issues as solutions.
So I think it was trying to get intouch with companies and understand
people that had used it, thetechnology and got real success.

(03:35):
So I think the word that welearned was simple, start small,
try and fix easy problemsthat you can then scale up.
So I think like everybody,you go in at the deep end,
but actually you've got to scale itback and work one thing at a time.
Yeah, that's great. Thank you forthose insights, Alan. So I'm a big fan.

(03:57):
I do lots of moderating and talks andthings like that to find out about the
benefits.
So you could talk a little bit aboutthe benefits that you're experiencing
through the kind of integration of ARmore important into your processes.
That's the real key part here.
Sure. I mean one ofthe biggest benefits is
the time it takes to check and audit.

(04:19):
So I can honestly sayour TPM systems where it
requires manual checkingwith the AR systems,
we can actually visualize checkandr all in one operation.
Also escalation if there's an issue,
you can instantly record a voice noteand send it to a team leader or a

(04:40):
supervisor. And that way we'reable to capture data, time logs,
process when it was escalatedto the right people.
And the real benefits are the factthat you can have that reduction in
downtime. Also knowing thatthe right people are there.
So it reduces expense,
it reduces the amount ofconsumables or the right first time

(05:03):
productivity. There are smallefficiency gains, there's less paper,
there's digital records,
there's improved collaboration betweenteams because they're getting the
information at the right time.So one of the intangibles that you we
see is that actually there's a levelof attraction to the technology and the
equipment, which means for an associate,

(05:27):
there's motivation. I want to be a partof this, I want to fix my problems,
I want to showcase the, butthere's also new skills.
As soon as we got going,
it was very quick that a smallteam of people we're suddenly
really interested in getting involved.Yes, please, I'd like to fix this,

(05:47):
can I be involved? So I canhonestly say in a short time,
maybe six, seven months, I wasno longer the administrator.
The guys are working.
So there's an exponential growthbecause there's a buzz around the whole
project and the technology.
It's amazing. I guess just totake that a little bit further,
recruiting new people into the company,

(06:10):
if they can see that they're using thelatest technology and how cool that is,
especially, let's be honest,the younger generation for sure.
That's going to be a great intangiblebenefit. And I hear that a lot.
It's a bit about capturing the skills ofpeople that may be close to retirement,
but also encouraging set of workers. So

(06:31):
it sounds amazing. Thank you.
But we know that it'snot always a easy path.
So can you maybe talkabout some of the problems,
the challenging hurdles thatyou had to do to overcome and
to adopt or get the implementation of ai?
Yeah, for sure.
I think some of the strugglepoints that we've had

(06:54):
is sometimes starting too big.
We're trying to conquer big projects.
So my advice to anybody is start small,
start with a smallconcept, communicate well,
provide transparency, and bring asmany people to the party as you can.
I think one of the key learning pointsthat we had is that how to build

(07:19):
simple workflows,
how to put that standardwork into practice and then
make something that's repeatable,
but also an openness and transparency.
You're not going to get it right everytime. So focus on improvement every time.
Small little details,
reaching out to the manufacturers of theequipment or the software that you are

(07:41):
using to help you developthe capability on the way.
So definitely empowering the peoplethat are going to use it to be able to
understand it would be a key.And of course,
we made all the mistakes alongthe way and we've tried too hard,
been too big and had to scaleit back and work through.
But of course there's the infrastructures.

(08:02):
How will you repair lostequipment or broken equipment?
How will it be maintained?
How do you manage swapping itbetween different users and also
wifi, understanding where the file sits.
So there's a whole infrastructurethat needs to be there.
What I would say is choose yourproof of concept or your trial area

(08:25):
and use these as a basis to almoststress test everything that you are
concerned about, but also thingswill come out of the woodwork.
All the little details.
Yeah, I think there's a couple of bits.
I remember when I first startedthis role years and years ago,
and actually gentlemen fromBosch said to me, look,
we kind of plan big but deliver small.

(08:48):
So you are a bit about getting theright people, getting the security,
getting the safety, gettingthe infrastructure. People in
the project then needs to be,or the proof of concept smaller,
but get them in andcommunicate as you say.
So I think there's some great insightsthere. And just to finish off,
thank you also for those practical things,

(09:10):
working out how you're going to get stuffto them, what happens if they break?
Do you have hot swappablebatteries for example?
Or brand new kind of devicesand stuff like that. So amazing.
Some really great insights there.But thank you very much, Alan.
I'm sure we'll catch up again,
so I'm sure our audience is reallyinterested in how you continue to deliver

(09:30):
your XR solutions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mark. All the best.