BY KAYLA NOBREGA
This week we had Marcel Joosten and John Shelley, the managing directors of Jobeco Foods, in studio with us. Jobeco Foods is based in Dubai, Holland, and Nigeria. Their goal is to make high quality food readily accessible in areas like East and West Africa.
We spoke about how AR and VR can be incorporated into business operations in the food distribution industry. Below is a summary of our discussion.
1. Jobeco Foods prides themselves on consistent, high quality customer service. How does AR and VR contribute to this goal?
Augmented Reality helps with operational efficiency in that it provides a far more automated solution to warehouse organisation. Many processes that are traditionally done manually such as scanning barcodes, stocktaking, and product tracking, can all be done through an AR app. This speeds up packing and delivery processes.
Virtual Reality helps Jobeco showcase their warehouse and distribution centres to their distributors and other clients, without having to spend time and money on traveling. Transparency is important in gaining client confidence and VR provides a trustworthy method of informing people and businesses of operation processes and environments.
2. AR and VR can also be used in training staff. How would this be useful to distribution companies?
While AR technology helps staff learn the procedures and standards required in the warehouse and distribution centres, VR assists the sales team. Simulations of different client encounters can help prepare ground staff for situations that may occur while selling.
VR training provides hands-on experience without the risk that comes with making mistakes. It is a time and money saving training solution.
3. Where do you see AR and VR going in this industry?
Technical trends come and go, but AR and VR seem to be a trend that will stay, and companies that do not incorporate it now will fall behind in the same way that happened with the rise in popularity of social media. AR adds a fun element to operations and to products while lowering costs, increasing efficiency, and so increasing customer satisfaction.
As AR and VR technologies become more accessible to all regions, it will take on the same way social media platforms have, and be integrated within social media platforms, which is already happening.
For more questions and in-depth answers, you can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel soon!