Using Stellantis' new virtual reality forklift simulator at its Sterling Heights Stamping Facility feels like playing a video game. But the technology has a nobler purpose than passing time and leveling up: Stellantis hopes it will help eliminate forklift-related injuries.
On Thursday, Oct. 22, Stellantis gave members of the news media the chance to try the new virtual reality forklift simulator at the automaker's stamping facility in Sterling Heights. The technology has been in place at the facility — the largest stamping plant in the world — for about a year and is being used to train the plant's workforce on the basic skills necessary to operate a forklift before they ever actually get behind the wheel.
Joe Weber, Stellantis' head of North
American Manufacturing Innovation, said the simulator will be used to make forklift training faster and more efficient.
"If we can get (the workforce) in the seat before they get into an actual forklift, we can get them comfortable with it, right?" Weber said.
Stellantis purchased the technology — for a price undisclosed — after seeing it at the company's Factory Booster Day, a showcase for startups and suppliers to pitch the company and its employees on manufacturing technology and solutions.
It really does feel like a video game: Yellow arrows guide the driver toward highlighted target areas where crates of goods should be picked up or deposited. There are various levels — or training modules — that can sharpen specific skills, like an obstacle course where trainees can skirt around cones and brake as "people" walk in front of the lift. The software tracks performance and monitors driver safety and how damaged a crate may be, should the operator crash.
"For somebody who hasn't driven a forklift, this will show you how it turns, what it feels like when you stop and go, loading and unloading, stacking," said Haikal Alwageeh, the methods manager at the Sterling Stamping plant.
"I can't do (that type of training) here," Alwageeh said, gesturing toward a stationary training forklift nearby. "But I can do all of that here."
While the main goal of the simulator is to train newcomers on the basics before doing the real thing, it will also be a supplemental tool in recurring forklift training, which happens every three years at Sterling Stamping, according to Alwageeh.
Stellantis said the training technology is not replacing any jobs on the shop floor. The software does, however, gather data about how drivers operate the simulated forklift that is then parsed by an artificial intelligence program to perfect the technology, said Jordanne Bradford, the director of material logistics management for Stellantis' North American stamping operations.
The VR forklift simulator launched at Sterling Heights Stamping about a year ago and will later expand to other Stellantis facilities, said spokesperson Ann Marie Fortunate. Two more units were installed at Stellantis National Training Center in Warren in the last week.
Liam Rappleye covers Stellantis and the UAW for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him LRappleye@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Stellantis uses this virtual reality tech to train forklift drivers
