Scaling Training Nationwide When There Aren’t Enough Trainers to Go Around

Somero is a unique company in a niche industry. Uniqueness affords many advantages, but one downside is that experienced trainers who can teach people how to operate, maintain, and service Somero equipment are in short supply.

Tradespeople learning to use Somero equipment traditionally travel to the company’s training center in Florida. There, in small classes of five or six students apiece, they learn about the machines and practice laying concrete.

Even though it’s torn up and recycled after the fact, all that practice concrete has a significant cost and environmental impact.

With VR training, tradespeople can practice laying and leveling virtual concrete, reducing the amount of real-world material the learning center requires.

Even in small classes, there are inevitably times when the trainer is working one-on-one with a student, leaving four to five other students looking for something to do.

After introducing VR, the company could assign those students to work in a simulation while they wait their turn to work with the instructor one-on-one.

VR has enabled scalability of training as well as letting us leverage down time while people are waiting for their turn with the trainer, so people really come out of it with deeper understanding.

Dave Raasakka
SVP, Global Support | Somero

One reason VR training is so perfectly suited to the construction trades is that tradespeople tend to be hands-on learners. Instead of reading a manual or watching a video, users learn by doing, giving them a faster and deeper understanding.

When a Somero customer already has an experienced team to support new hires, tradespeople can train in VR without ever traveling to the Florida academy. The company can simply send out a headset loaded with the content a new hire needs to get up to speed.

Training for Concrete Trades in VR Saves Money and Improves Skills

Somero partnered with ForgeFX, a VR content creator with a track record of developing training simulators for heavy equipment manufacturers.

The first challenge they tackled together was how to train new operators without ever having to bring the trainer, trainee, and equipment together.

The logistics of bringing people and machinery to training sites is a complication many manufacturers face. Scalable VR training eliminates that issue by putting immersive training on a headset that can be shipped across the country in a package the size of a shoebox.

Training tradespeople in virtual reality also protects both operators and machinery from expensive accidents.

For instance, Somero vehicles are transported on flatbed trailers. Driving the vehicle up a loading ramp onto a trailer is a delicate maneuver; it only takes a slight error for the machine to fall off the edge, risking personal injury and property damage.

ForgeFX developed a VR module that lets operators practice driving up the ramp over and over, building muscle memory.

The training modules are also carefully designed to build spatial awareness and familiarity with the work environment. ForgeFX collected CAD models, visited job sites, and worked with subject matter experts to make sure their simulations felt as real as possible.

“VR training shouldn’t feel like you’re playing a game. It should feel like you’re actually there having the experience,” said Devin Weidinger, Technical Director of ForgeFX. “That’s what’s going to create the deep memory of actually doing it.”

ArborXR Keeps Trainers In Control While Fine-Tuning Content

Fine-tuning any training curriculum relies on regular customer feedback. ForgeFX continuously iterates on Somero’s content and tests updates every two weeks using ArborXR’s MDM system.

We can get a feed of what our clients are experiencing and collaborate live. Arbor XR lets us know everyone’s on the right version, everyone’s online and active, and there’s good data analytics on small rollouts for proof of concept.

Devin Weidinger
Technical Director | ForgeFX

When a tradesperson slips on a VR headset, the training begins with getting to know the machine itself—opening the hood, starting the ignition, checking tire pressure.

Activities become more technical as the user progresses, until they are laying and leveling virtual concrete.

One of the challenges for developers of VR simulations is deploying enterprise-based applications to affordable consumer devices. With ArborXR device management, consumer devices like Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro behave like enterprise devices, with all the security, management, and controls an enterprise user would expect.

VR Training Excels When the Cost of Failure is High

Somero has found people who go through its virtual reality training have similar success rates and training scores to people who learned one-on-one with an experienced trainer.

While videos and classroom lectures are still effective ways to convey information, immersive learning is a powerful tool when the cost of failure is high.

Failure is phenomenal in training. You can’t really excel at something if you don’t fail and figure out how to overcome that. When it’s too costly to allow someone to fail in real life, they can fail over and over in virtual reality so that they don’t fail in the real world.

Greg Meyers
CEO | ForgeFX

VR training has been so successful in helping Somero’s students succeed, the company plans to continue developing more modules. It’s considering moving beyond the operation and maintenance of its equipment and developing training to help tradespeople navigate various challenges on a job site.

Let ArborXR be your VR deployment partner as you apply immersive learning to your company. We can guide you through choosing the right hardware, finding the right content developer, and planning a well-managed program that keeps you in control. Get started for free.