Gamification is slowly but persistently making its way into every aspect of our lives. Looking to find love on a dating app? Turn it into a game! Learning how to invest in the stock market? Turn it into a game! Want your customers to get excited about your rewards program? Turn it into a game! Even the manufacturing industry is getting in on the gamification trend. Laura Davis, the editor in chief of New Equipment Digest, recently reported on this topic as she covered a study conducted by engineers at West Virginia University (WVU).
Below is an excerpt from her blog post:
Published in the Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing journal, the researchers examined the “gamification” of manufacturing tasks to see if it would improve workers' well-being and/or productivity. What they found suggests that workers on an assembly line would be more productive, engaged, and motivated if they were incentivized through competition or a reward system.
Makenzie Dolly, a researcher of the study, said gamification has become part of many people’s daily lives. In wellness, gamification shows up in the form of fitness-tracking challenges. In marketing, popular forms of gamification include shopping rewards programs for food, coffee, or clothing.
Dolly, a Statler College doctoral student at the time of the study, with the help of Ashish Nimbarte, professor and chair of the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, and Thorsten Wuest, associate professor, created an experiment that simulated a typical assembly task using a toy Lego set.
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Created by the editors of Plant Services and New Equipment Digest, The Lighter Side of Manufacturing is a feel-good blog that showcases how advances in science, math, engineering, and technology are making our world more whimsical. Here’s another post that is guaranteed to brighten your day.
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