Via: ABiz IND Media – Training in Progress
For over 75 years, Frank’s International has been
setting new standards in tubular and oil & gas services worldwide. The
company’s roots date back to 1938, when Mr. Frank Mosing founded Frank’s Casing
Crew & Rental Tools, which resulted in continuous and steady growth into a multi-service
tubular company.
The Casing Services Division represents the
core of FI’s operations. They began to design and manufacture their own
equipment because the "off-the-shelf" tools available would not meet their
criteria for ruggedness or dependability.
FI’s casing division demands the highest
standards of training, testing and maintenance on all tools and equipment to
ensure a safe, efficient and productive work environment.
As reported by ABiz, Jacke West, training
director for Frank’s International, was looking for a training solution to
better prepare workers with limited on-site experience to the intense
operations happening on a platform, when he walked through the doors of Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise
(LITE) a few months ago.
LITE’s product development team has expertise
in immersive, multi-person, interactive training environments that increase a
worker’s capabilities and effectiveness in environment familiarization,
training on complex machinery and in dangerous situations, and in measuring
competency and retention of information.
When LITE first met with West, he needed a
product that was engaging and effective, but after the first consultation, in
which he was introduced to LITE’s IVLE (Immersive Virtual Learning Environments)
product, he knew it would be a winner.
Working with West over the next few months, LITE
took his original PowerPoint and textbook-based training program and elevated
it to a high-end, immersive, virtual reality training Serious Game. This Serious
Game environment was designed to train platform workers how to recognize
hazards, when a dangerous situation requires a stop work order, and how to rig
up a bail. During sprint reviews of the project, West and a few of his team
members were able to come in to LITE’s facility and test the game at different
levels of development. Throughout the process, the trainees who work on the
equipment and perform the job duty were able to provide LITE with technical
feedback and scenarios to ensure that the program was as true to life as
possible.
Not only are Frank’s International employees
able to train remotely, anywhere in the world, but training managers could
potentially have the capability to receive data on how the trainees learn and
correct learning gaps as they happen. This function is an added capability that
Frank’s International can incorporate into its training program.
“Frank’s International wanted a program that
allowed our workers to learn and retain information for safety reasons,” West
says. “LITE has exceeded our idea of what the future of training looks like,
and our workers are excited about learning on this game-based technology.”
About LITE
LITE, a $27 million, 70,000-square-foot facility located at the
Research Park of the University of Louisiana Lafayette
Conceived as a magnet for economic development
available to businesses and organizations, LITE is a 3-D immersive
visualization resource center, hosting clients in commercial industry, government
and university sectors.
LITE's leading-edge facility features a comprehensive set of advanced
visualization systems, focusing on immersive training called Immersive Virtual
Learning Environments. To add an even deeper layer of immersion, LITE also
utilizes the Oculus Rift, the 3D stereoscopic, virtual reality goggles that
place players inside the environment for a fully immersive experience.