{"id":10822,"date":"2020-10-27T15:20:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T14:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.laval-virtual.com\/?p=10822"},"modified":"2020-10-27T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T14:29:09","slug":"in-the-food-industry-digital-technology-is-a-game-changer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.laval-virtual.com\/en\/in-the-food-industry-digital-technology-is-a-game-changer\/","title":{"rendered":"In the food industry, “digital technology is a game-changer”"},"content":{"rendered":"

On October 22nd, Laval Virtual invited visitors to its virtual world for the Laval Virtual Days Food. The first edition of this event, now a monthly event, focused on the food industry. Professionals from the agriculture and food industry shared their experience with immersive technologies. Training, risk prevention, nutritional pedagogy: the topics were varied. One question was at the heart of the day: how can virtual reality<\/a> be integrated into the agri-food industry, at a time when it is already very common in other industries?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing digital transformation of the food sector<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Digital technology is a game-changer, of rhythms, the relationship to time, space, individuals, organisations and processes<\/em>“. This is how Catherine Guyonnet, Director of Innovation and Services for Businesses and Assets at OCAPIAT<\/a>, introduces her thoughts. Technologies are opening up new perspectives in the food sector, including virtual reality. “The health crisis has created an emergency<\/em>,” she explains. Indeed, companies have been forced to readapt by adopting the remote. This quickly became the norm, and “opened up a royal road to digital technology<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the challenge lies in how to strike the right balance between physical and human distance. Catherine Guyonnet attaches great importance to supporting companies in their digitalisation process<\/strong>. You have to know how to choose the right digital tools and integrate them wisely, according to the right reference system. “When should we put in serious games? Or virtual reality?<\/em>” OCAPIAT is a skills operator in charge of supporting professional training, particularly in the food sector. The organisation is convinced that new technologies, including immersive technologies, represent an opportunity to restore the attractiveness of training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to training, virtual and augmented reality<\/a> can be useful for other functions. In all industries, there are 6 main uses, as Marie Leblanc, Head of Services<\/a> at Laval Virtual, explains: design, training, decision support, operator assistance, marketing and communication, sales. She rightly points out that immersive technologies have not created an immediate need in the food industry. Today, however, they are mainly used for remote monitoring and alerts<\/strong>, for example for crops. The visualisation of data makes it possible to visualise the growth of plants. Augmented reality, on the other hand, serves as assistance and support for field treatment. Therefore, “there are more and more cases of the use of immersive technologies in the agricultural and food industry<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training, a mature use of virtual reality in the food industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“A picture’s worth a thousand words”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Virtual reality and augmented reality are progressively imposing themselves in the food sector. One of the key factors in the digitalisation of companies is employee training. For many professional structures, the idea is to make use of interactive pedagogy. Xavier Negrie, Head of Training and Campus at Agromousquetaires<\/a>, tells the story of the opening of a campus in 2018 that will integrate digital tools into training. Virtual classrooms have existed since that same year, which have been reused during the confinement. “There was a need for reactivity, to gain speed, to train just in time<\/em>“. According to him, “the traditional and digital teaching methods will complement each other<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irène Azar, Innovation Project Manager at OCAPIAT, presented for the occasion an immersive training platform<\/strong>: “Entreprise Virtuelle<\/a>” (Virtual Enterprise). The project is co-financed by the European Social Fund which supports OCAPIAT’s innovation approach. This platform represents “an unprecedented innovation in the food sector<\/em>“. The objective is to make people discover professional environments that are often inaccessible: cutting places, fire safety. In partnership with Inedy<\/a> and Evaveo<\/a>, the immersive platform enables skills certifications to be validated in simulated situations. Virtual reality represents another way of learning and offers a wide range of skills acquisition. “It stimulates motivation, increases attention and enhances 4 of our 5 senses<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marc Bringuier, Augmented Reality Director at PTC<\/a>, is also convinced by the use of immersive technologies for employee training. He introduces his speech with a very accurate reminder: “One hour after a training session, 50% of the training content has been integrated. 24 hours later, we lose 70% of the information, 90% a week later<\/em>“. For him, augmented reality will improve employee training in the future. “Deploying Augmented Reality allows for an acceleration of the learning curve<\/strong>.<\/em>” One of the advantages of AR is that its use does not disrupt the learner’s habits. “He can be trained at home, in training rooms or on production lines.<\/em>” Augmented reality allows very rapid deployment of training modules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AgroVirtu’Ose: an example of virtual training deployment in the food industry<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Emmanuel Prouvost, Training Advisor at OCAPIAT, presented AgroVirtu’Ose<\/a>, a collaborative project that brought together nine companies from the Picardie region in North of France. It is one of the first projects to introduce virtual reality training in the food sector. Why did these nine companies choose virtual reality? MOOCs, e-learning modules and serious games were presented to them. “They had a crush on VR\/AR and saw several interests<\/em><\/strong>“. As we all know, employees are fully immersed in a professional world very close to their own. “The idea was to make a world that was as close as possible to their everyday working environment.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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