CM Labs as mentioned in Compact Equipment:
There’s only one way out of the labor shortage in the construction sector, and it requires attracting more young people to the field, safely training them and setting them on a course for fulfilling careers.
However, saying that we need to train more young people is easy. Finding the time, money and resources to do it while still meeting production demands is the hard part.
Simulation training can be that bridge from the old guard to a new generation of heavy equipment operators. It offers such a competitive advantage over traditional approaches that companies not yet using simulation training systems risk being left behind.
Compared to training on real equipment, simulation training offers key benefits that can’t be found in real life, like training in a 100 percent safe environment and training for things to go wrong in that safe environment. Below are five reasons the industry at large is adopting simulation training as a way to alleviate the labor shortage and train the next generation.
No matter how disastrous a trainee’s mistake, they can’t be harmed or damage equipment in a simulation. A trainee could tip a simulated mini excavator or swerve a simulated forklift on wet pavement into warehouse shelving. On a simulator, they can learn from the experience and immediately try again rather than taking a visit to the emergency room, or worse. Telling a new operator not to drive with a full bucket at height is effective, but showing them what can happen when they do all but guarantees a permanent connection in their brain. This allows novice operators to approach lessons calmly, experiment and learn from mistakes. As a result, heavy equipment operation becomes less intimidating for the next generation of operators, who are far less likely to come from a farming or construction background these days.
Simulation training is not a video game. It’s a highly detailed, ultra-realistic digital representation of a work environment that incorporates real-world physics and high-quality controls to develop real skills. Sophisticated simulators will use the exact same OEM quality controls that are found in the real equipment, in the pursuit of making the transition to real equipment easier. Once a trainee graduates from the simulator to the real equipment, it’s a lot better when the controls they end up using are close in terms of quality and button layout.
[…]We encourage you to read the full article sharing how simulation transforms training and how to make the most of it in Compact Equipment’s website.
