Augmented Reality in Warehouse Operations: Opportunities and Barriers

Abstract In today’s business environment, the efficiency of warehouses can be critical for the efficiency of the overall supply chains they belong to. As a result, new technologies are being tested and adopted in industry to improve the performance of warehouse operations. An example technology that has recently gained interest by both academia and industry is augmented reality. In this paper, we investigate the opportunities arising from the usage of augmented reality in warehouses as well as the barriers for its industrial adoption. This is done via a series of practitioners interviews and via an experiment designed using Google Glass. Our results indicate that even though the technology is not mature enough at the moment, the potential benefits it can offer make it promising for the near future.

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