DAMRC makes complex machine skills simple to learn

Q: What does DAMRC do?

“DAMRC is the acronym for Danish Advanced Manufacturing Research Center. It is a research center, which focuses on performing many different projects to help the machining industry become even better.

Primarily, our stakeholders are a lot of Danish machining companies. DAMRC focuses on the transcription of what’s happening in academia while ensuring that it is something that is recognizable for the machining industry. In simple words, we translate those academic insights into something that the industry can use.

We have this in-house technology, called TAP testing, which our engineers use when they go out in the industry. In companies, we do TAP testing that helps us understand how the machine performs – and this technology is something that requires a lot of skill.

Initially, we were curious if we could make someone, who is not a TAP test engineer, learn how to use this technology. That’s the reason why we figured out that uQualio would perhaps be the way for us to teach them – where the system operator could learn it in their own way and at their own pace – and we wanted to do it remotely because we are located in the heart of Jutland.

Moreover, even though Denmark is not a large country, there could be some interesting ways for us to remotely help a company in Copenhagen, Bornholm, or North Jutland. And, we could still just work on the things that really require the skill, and perhaps the equipment could be in the facilities of the different machining companies. We wanted to make this technology transfer happen and that is why we wanted to try the uQualio platform to see how that would turn out.”

Q: Was there anything in particular that made you choose uQualio as your provider?

“In the beginning, we were not even considering having an eLearning platform. It was brought up during the early stages of the project. Besides learning the TAP tests, our engineers were also learning how to use Microsoft HoloLens. So, they used to call us up repeatedly – and after a few days, we realized that it was not as easy as we thought and there were actually quite a lot of things we needed to learn about.

For instance, it was very cool with the helmets, but we definitely needed someone to understand how to use that helmet in the first place. A lot of the operators we work with are perhaps not the ones who really like a lengthy written manual. So, we thought of doing something more tangible.

That is where uQualio showed up with an interesting solution and an interesting perspective. Plus, uQualio already had a track record shown in MADE.DK’s VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Assisted Reality) learning solution test and we were also pursuing to figure out how to use it. So, we tested uQualio and it has been interesting to see the results.

I witnessed a 16-year-old boy, who didn’t know anything about machines, but tried a video instruction in uQualio, and he was really fast at learning it. Likewise, a 35-year-old operator was also quite fast in getting to know how to use it.

Something that we have really been pushing about uQualio is the intuitiveness of the system with the option that people could do it at their own pace. So, if there is something that they want to relearn, they find it extremely easy to do it with uQualio.

We have had some really good indications with uQualio that now makes me think of other ways to use this system for technology transfer.

We do have other technologies available where we could have a situation, when we simply need to send out the equipment and perhaps, we could have uQualio as a starting point for sending out our equipment, because sometimes our equipment is quite expensive.

We were a bit cautious about how to use the system. Therefore, we decided to have it this way at least for operators, so that we have the basic alignment done with a system like uQualio. So, that has really been positive.

And I think that there could be other possible ways for us to use uQualio in the future as we are doing many different studies and also a lot of different courses. I would also like to add that before going out to our CNC machines, we can have a quick safety course or something similar. So, I think that we will look at both internal and external ways to help us progress in making sure that everybody is on the same page when starting to use our technologies.

So basically, we are bridging the gap, upskilling them really fast by using uQualio videos. We have placed the video as foundation before they even touch the equipment. They need to understand how to use it and that’s where we use the uQualio platform.”

Q: What other results (apart from the 16-year-old and 35-year-old operators) have you gotten from using uQualio?

“Yes, we actually have another positive view of it. We are upscaling quite aggressively right now. We have had 10 new employees, including a lot of foreigners, who are actually using the system to understand how to use it efficiently. Basically, we are, at present, using uQualio for internal upscaling. In one of our ongoing projects, we’ve had two or three different engineers on it. So, uQualio has actually been a good way to be consistent.

The external people who use uQualio, are really fond of the simplicity of the video training platform. This cuts the need for us to bring in another system as everyone has smartphones today. So, it is easy for them to work with and that is perhaps something we didn’t realize when we just started with uQualio.

Particularly, the video format of uQualio is something that they are used to as they browse through every day on their Facebook and other similar stuff. So, the overall experience has been incredibly positive for everyone.”

Q: How would you summarize the three biggest benefits you have experienced with the uQualio video platform?

“I would say that uQualio is giving us a closer learning loop. By having the video format, you get to think of other angles of how to ensure the learning comes through and the insight is actually getting into something our employees can translate.

Then, I would say the simplicity or ease of use of the uQualio video eLearning platform has made it easy for us to ensure that people are learning what they need. uQualio also makes us look more professional in terms of learning by giving educational steps to our employees. If we were to make our own videos, we would have to get them transcribed in a lot of languages that would take us too many hours. So, in that way, it makes us look more professional because there’s a good platform for us to work with.

uQualio gives simplicity for the users and in a known format, and it also makes us more consistent in what we need to think of learning, from a Word document to actually having something that people can use in practice.”

Q: Which features on the uQualio training platform have you found most useful?

“The uQualio platform is extremely simple to use and based on what I have seen or the basic functions we have used so far, I think that there is way more potential for us to explore and use the platform.”

Q: What kind of feedback have you received and what training improvements have you been seeing internally and externally?

“The external part has been making sure that they get the basics they need to know about. They wear a helmet which is quite expensive. First, they should make sure not to break it. The next step is to learn how to use this TAP test equipment and how it fulfills the need. They need to understand how to unpack it. They also need to understand if there’s anything missing, then they must convey that before starting up.

Every time we shut down a machine, it does not produce any components or parts and that costs the companies a lot of money. So, in that way, we make sure that the basics are done before stopping the machines.

With uQualio, we have a far easier way of making sure that they’ve understood how to use the equipment before shutting down at the right time.”

Q: What is the future of training at DAMRC? Do you picture yourself being able to use uQualio more in the future?

“uQualio is an effective way for us to make sure that everyone is through safety instructions. We recently conducted an educational course with eight participants, and they went through theory and did some practice out of the CNC machines.

Some of them are focused on broadening knowledge and I would say if we could take these insights from each of these projects and have them as a part of the training.

We have around 85 members. It would be nice for us to give them some insights by giving them a 2-minute video about, for instance, what’s happening within cryogenic cooling. I think this could be a way for us to give something back to the community we are part of.”

Q: If you were to recommend uQualio to someone who might be looking for a training system, what would you say to them?

“I think uQualio takes a complex situation and makes it simple, and I really think that it is one of the key aspects of the platform. uQualio is simple for the user, but it’s actually also quite simple for content creators to use.

There are tons of ways to do it with all the systems out there, but uQualio just offers a simple platform that everyone can use. Plus, you don’t have to be a visual editor or a graphic designer to create eLearning.”

Q: What advice would you give to others who are looking to potentially switch to something different for their training needs?

“I think it very much depends on what sort of work initiation we’re talking about.

In our case, we like the way uQualio is. It seems to have a very agile approach, which makes it more vivid and something that makes a lot of sense for SMEs in Denmark. It’s also very much goal oriented. If you have a smartphone, you can still get a format that really gives you insights. It’s not something where you need a large screen to actually get it to work for you.

I also like the possibility of working with the gamification elements, but that totally depends on your target audience. The best thing about the uQualio video training platform is that you actually have the flexibility to degrade (or upgrade) if you think something is not necessary for your crowd.”