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credit: Bondi Labs VR Training
With teams in Brisbane, Melbourne, London, and Beijing, Bondi Labs designs
and builds research-based products that address global challenges in Supply
Chain & Logistics, Biosecurity Awareness & Inspection, Workplace
Safety, and Food Quality Control.
The company leverages on 3D simulations and virtual reality (VR) to
improve safety in logistics, using game-based training to engage, improve and
standardize behavior.
Biosecurity Simulation
Training
Bondi Labs created
its first game-based simulation for biosecurity inspection on the
Chevron-operated Gorgon Project. Situated
off the northwest coast of Western Australia, it is one of the largest natural
gas (LNG) projects in the world and the largest single resource project in
Australia’s history.
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credit: The Chevron-operated Gorgon Project
Gorgon
comprises a three-train, 15.6 million tons per annum LNG facility and a domestic
gas plant with the capacity to supply 300 terajoules of gas per day to Western
Australia.
This project is located on Barrow Island, an A-Class reserve, among the
most protected type of land anywhere.
“The Island is home to many protected species, because it’s never been
exposed to many people. Any invasive pests carried by humans working on the
island could potentially wipe out these species. Because of this, one of the
most stringent biosecurity risk management protocols in the world was put in
place,” said Bondi Lab’s Founder and Managing Director Jonathan Marshall
to Logistics & Materials
Handling Magazine issued this month.
For Chevron, the global energy giant managing the project, the stakes
were extremely high. The $70 billion dollar project, which during the
construction phase had several flights every day back and forth from Perth and
up to 10,000 construction workers on the island at its peak – a major
biosecurity breach would be a significant setback.
“If an invasive pest that got onto the island from a piece of
machinery, a container or someone’s shoe or clothing was found this could lead
to an eradication process which could take several days or more creating
significant delays and associated costs potentially in the millions,” Jonathan added.
Even with the best biosecurity inspectors in the world, the challenge was
how to get them all to a level of competency which is efficient and standardized,
and also be able to provide management with the necessary data so they can be
confident the inspectors are performing their inspection tasks effectively.
The first step was for the team at Bondi Labs to monitor
everything that the inspectors were doing. The footage revealed that often
inspectors had significantly different approaches to the inspection task they
needed to do. To improve core inspection skills and increase performance standardization,
Jonathan and his team worked alongside the Chevron Biosecurity Risk Management
team and created an immersive, virtual world where the inspectors could train
and be assessed in a fail-safe environment. In the game, which can be played on
a desktop or tablet, there are virtual objects that the inspectors would find
in the real world, and also the pests they would encounter in the real world, making
it relevant and meaningful to the player.
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credit: Bondi Labs
Virtual Reality Training
For Logistics
After working in the biosecurity sphere, Bondi Labs team recognized
that any industry that required safety training could benefit from this style
of learning, and Bondi Labs moved its focus to Logistics and Warehouse
safety.
They adapted its original biosecurity simulation training and built a
range of new virtual environments including a virtual warehouse, sea port and
supply base, whereby for example warehouse workers can now be trained to spot
safety hazards.
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credit: Bondi Labs - Kuube
Learning from the productive experience collaborating with Chevron’s
Biosecurity experts to develop training that is genuinely effective – Bondi
Labs partnered with global industry logistics company DB Schenker to co-design their
cloud based, WHS (Workplace Health and Safety) simulation training product Kuube,
specifically for the logistics and warehouse industries.
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credit: Bondi Labs - Kuube
Over the past five years Bondi Labs has developed a sophisticated
online platform design built specifically for simulation training as well as
creating an extensive library of hundreds of virtual assets. These virtual
assets can be re-used and re-purposed to develop simulation training scenarios
which address key WHS competency needs such as forklift and material handling
equipment pre-start safety checks – a known safety issue in the logistics
industry.
With scalability a crucial requirement for both DB Schenker and
Chevron, Kuube was designed to work on standard office desktops through to iPads
and VR devices.
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credit: Bondi Labs – Kuube on the App Store
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credit: Bondi Labs – VR Training
Jonathan and his team are excited about what this new way of training
could mean for safety in the logistics industry, saying there are upwards of
half a million people working in the sector who are faced with potentially
serious safety risks every day as well as the public.
Bondi Labs is
entering into a strategic partnership with the Supply Chain and Logistics Association
of Australia (SCLAA), to offer their 3D simulation training product Kuube
to SCLAA’s 8000+ members and together start driving serious change in workplace
safety awareness and competency especially within the context of the new CoR (Chain
of Responsibility) compliance requirements for the logistics industry.
For Bondi Labs, this kind of technology is designed to ensure
people work smarter and more productively.