Preliminary Evaluation of Inspection Assistance Methods Using VR Simulating Pharmaceutical Wholesaler Offices

In delivery processes from pharmaceutical wholesaler's sales offices to the client's facilities, which are the target of this case study, an assistance system using handheld devices and paper slips is used. The introduction of AR assistance systems is beginning to be investigated to improve operations in these processes. However, as AR is not yet highly accepted in Japanese industry, a VR environment has been constructed to enable the cycle consisting of prototyping, comparison with existing systems, and sharing the results with stakeholders as efficiently as possible. Based on the preliminary evaluation results in this VR environment, the reproducibility and effectiveness of the VR simulation as well as the superiority of the AR assistance method were confirmed. Furthermore, feedback from various sessions, including the demo session at ISMAR2024, provided insights into the importance of balancing conventional concepts and physical environments with digital assistance methods.