Virtual Reality in Manufacturing Education: A Scoping Review Indicating State-of-the-Art, Benefits, and Challenges Across Domains, Levels, and Entities

TL;DR

This scoping study addresses the US manufacturing workforce shortage by evaluating how immersive VR can support education and training. It introduces a three-dimensional taxonomy (Domains, Levels, Entities) guided by a 5W1H framework and applies a PRISMA-based systematic review to 108 articles, revealing substantial benefits of VR in realism, motivation, and safe practice, but substantial barriers including cost, infrastructure, content development, and standardization. The findings detail divergent adoption across conventional and modern manufacturing skills, formal and work-based learning, and development/implementation/utilization activities, highlighting opportunities to scale immersive training through open content, adaptive design, and policy support. The study’s taxonomy and synthesis offer actionable guidance for academia and industry to embed VR training into curricula and on-the-job development, accelerating workforce readiness for Industry 4.0 in manufacturing.

Abstract

To address the shortage of a skilled workforce in the U.S. manufacturing industry, immersive Virtual Reality (VR)-based training solutions hold promising potential. To effectively utilize VR to meet workforce demands, it is important to understand the role of VR in manufacturing education. Therefore, we conduct a scoping review in the field. As a first step, we used a 5W1H (What, Where, Who, When, Why, How) formula as a problem-solving approach to define a comprehensive taxonomy that can consider the role of VR from all relevant possibilities. Our taxonomy categorizes VR applications across three key aspects: (1) Domains, (2) Levels, and (3) Entities. Using a systematic literature search and analysis, we reviewed 108 research articles to find the current state, benefits, challenges, and future opportunities of VR in the field. It was found that VR has been explored in a variety of areas and provides numerous benefits to learners. Despite these benefits, its adoption in manufacturing education is limited. This review discusses the identified barriers and provides actionable insights to address them. These insights can enable the widespread usage of immersive technology to nurture and develop a workforce equipped with the skills required to excel in the evolving landscape of manufacturing.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: Some examples of VR-based learning applications in the field of manufacturing education include: (A) An industry worker learning welding on a car chassis using VR, (B) A university student learning about the assembly of car parts using VR, (C) A university student programs a robot to perform an automotive operation, and (D) Student team performing collaborative design reviews in their design project. Such immersive applications prepare learners at various levels (university or industry settings) to learn skills (welding or robotics) to prepare them for (E) the requirements in the manufacturing industry. The design of such immersive applications is achieved using collaboration between (F) Developers in charge of creating the content, (G) Implementers in charge of instruction delivery, and (H) Learners utilizing the content to achieve desired goals.
• Figure 2: 5W1H formula used to develop the primary taxonomy
• Figure 3: Process followed to find the relevant articles for final review
• Figure 4: Virtual Reality enables education in conventional skills like welding and assembly, as well as emerging technologies such as smart manufacturing and robotics, preparing learners for the modern manufacturing landscape.
• Figure 5: Different levels of manufacturing education are shown, highlighting efforts to upskill and reskill the current workforce through (a) Work-Based Learning. Simultaneously, the education system emphasizes preskilling future employees via (b) Formal Education, preparing them for the evolving demands of the manufacturing industry.