The challenges facing industrial skills training teams generally fall into three areas:
- Cost
- Required curriculum additions
- Recruiting and retention
Spray painting instructors, training directors and other team members continually look for ways to decrease costs: costs associated with materials (e.g. paint, thinners, work pieces, and air filters), facilities, and time. Changes in the political and regulatory environment, specifically additional safety requirements and mandates to be eco-friendly, push the limits of the amount of knowledge transfer that can occur during a traditional training program. There’s another exacerbating force: the pool of skilled tradesmen is aging, posing the question of how to recruit and attract the next generation of workers. The SimSpray™ training system accelerates the learning of fundamental spray painting skills. SimSpray produces a realistic experience in which students reproduce the body positioning and muscle and joint movements required to create the ideal mil thickness on a finished piece. During traditional training, students need to select, move, and mount a part before they practice painting. With SimSpray, students' hands-on practice time significantly increases since a few taps on a touch screen monitor are all that’s required to begin another practice session. When coupled with professional instruction, the ability to continually repeat tasks enables students using SimSpray to become more proficient painters in a shorter period of time.
Cost effectiveness, ROI, and safety are important features of any industrial training tool. SimSpray is priced to produce value and savings. When using SimSpray, materials are not consumed, overspray is simulated, and the production of VOCs are eliminated. All of these factors make hands-on-training less expensive and more environmentally friendly. Using SimSpray improves classroom safety as well; hazardous material use is computer generated, proper safety protocol is practiced, and the potential for accidents is minimized. Using SimSpray produces measurable skills, saves time, and decreases expenses thus delivering a positive ROI to training organizations. There's a cool factor too. With its foundation in video game technology, SimSpray resonates well with today's young people. They immediately want to put the helmet on and try it out. This kind of reaction leads young adults to consider painting and coating as a career; something they may not have done before. |
