Education · Mumbai, India · 2022
Mahindra MILU: AR and VR training that made practical onboarding 30% faster in the pilot
Industrial skills live in the hands. MILU asked how a digital platform could teach them without shrinking them into a playlist of videos. We helped build the business case, then the platform and a set of AR and VR modules that let a trainee practise on a machine before touching one.
- Client
- Mahindra (MILU)
- Market
- India
- Engagement
- Feasibility study, then pilot build
- Timeline
- 8 months
- In care since
- 2022
- Platforms
- Web, Android tablets, VR headsets
12
interactive AR and VR modules
30%
faster practical onboarding in the pilot
3
training centres in the pilot
The context
Industrial knowledge is physical
Mahindra Industrial Learning for You, MILU, set out to teach industrial skills through a digital platform. Most learning products are built around watching. Industrial training asks for something else: sequence, safety, equipment, cause and effect. A trainee has to understand what happens when a step is skipped, ideally before it happens on a real machine.
We supported the programme across business and digital strategy, feasibility, research, platform development and the interactive training modules themselves.
The challenge
Practice without the risk
The first question was whether the idea would pay for itself. What would the platform cost, what role should certification play, and where would immersive technology earn its place rather than decorate a slide?
The second was about people. The learners were new trainees at industrial training centres, and many had never worn a headset. The platform had to fit Mahindra's brand, run on shared tablets on a busy training floor and respect the way instructors already teach.
Our approach
How we worked
One test guided every decision: does this give the learner access to something a page or a video cannot?
- 01
Listen & Learn
We spent time with instructors and trainees to see how practical skills were taught, where new starters struggled and which machines were hardest to get time on.
- 02
Map & Measure
Feasibility and cost modelling: the business case, the likely platform cost and a certification model. We chose the tasks where AR or VR could show something nothing else could, and left the rest to simpler formats.
- 03
Sketch & Shape
Learning designers and 3D artists storyboarded each module as a guided task: see the machine, understand the sequence, practise it, then get assessed. We learned early to design for work gloves, so every control is large, every prompt is spoken as well as shown, and nothing depends on a precise tap.
- 04
Build & Break
Modules were tested on the target tablets and headsets every week. Instructors tried to break them the way trainees would, by skipping steps, which is exactly the behaviour the modules exist to catch.
- 05
Launch & Land
A pilot across three training centres, with instructors trained first, devices set up before the first session and a simple way to report problems from the floor.
What we built
What we built
A learning platform with practice built in, not bolted on.
Strategy and business case
Feasibility study, cost model, learner and brand research, and a certification model that gave the programme a clear basis for its pilot.
Learning platform
Learner accounts, course paths, progress and instructor dashboards on the web, so a centre can see who is ready for the floor and who needs another session.
AR machine walkthroughs
Point a tablet at a training rig and the machine's parts, sequence and safety zones appear on top of it, one step at a time.
VR practice modules
Headset modules for tasks that are costly, rare or unsafe to rehearse on real equipment. A wrong step costs nothing but a restart.
Assessment and certification
Each module ends in an assessment, and results feed the certification workflows, so a certificate reflects practice rather than attendance.
The outcome
What changed
Twelve interactive AR and VR modules ran across the pilot at three training centres. Trainees reached practical readiness 30% faster than through the previous onboarding route, measured by the instructors' own sign off on the floor.
Immersive technology earned its place because we kept asking whether it helped the learner do something they otherwise could not. When the answer was no, we built something simpler. That habit sits at the centre of our AR and VR development work.
The AR modules gave trainees a safe first attempt at a machine they would otherwise only read about. That changed how quickly people felt ready on the floor.
Care & Grow
After launch
In our care since 2022
We supported the pilot for its full run: fixes between sessions, device care for each centre and two module updates when a machine on one floor was replaced by a newer model. When a centre with patchy Wi-Fi reported dropouts, we added an offline mode that saves results and syncs them once the connection returns.
Instructors can add and reorder learning content themselves, while new 3D modules remain a job for our team. What MILU does beyond the pilot is Mahindra's decision, and this page makes no claim about it.
Who worked on it
- Learning experience designer
- Product designer
- 3D artist
- Two Unity developers
- Full stack engineer
- QA engineer
Credits
This page describes D&C Studios’ role on the MILU programme: strategy, feasibility, research, the learning platform and the AR and VR modules. It does not imply a wider transformation engagement with the Mahindra group. Pilot figures come from the pilot’s own measures at three training centres and are not a forecast for any wider roll out.
Stack and tools
- Unity
- C#
- Android tablets
- Standalone VR headsets
- Laravel
- MySQL