Can you imagine going to your repetitive job at a production line, but also getting to play video games while at it? For some factory workers in Japan, this has already become reality. As reported by TBS NEWS DIG, Maruwa, a company that works in cleaning and distribution of sheets and towels to hotels and hospitals, has recently implemented Real Focus Synergy, a piece of gamification software that enables workers to have a more entertaining experience at the workplace and supposedly boosts productivity.
The software works as a classic idle game in which island-dwelling NPCs gather resources, farm, and expand their village. However, there is a catch. In the case of Maruwa, with each bed sheet a worker loads into the machine on the production line, an in-game countdown is started. The characters are allowed to move only until the countdown ends, which means that in order to keep your NPCs developing the village, you’re required to work in real life too.
The developers of Real Focus Synergy, Nissho Denki Seigyo, say that the game was made with the goal of helping factory workers spend their time working in a more entertaining manner, especially when it comes to positions that require repetitive manual labor. Interestingly, Nissho Denki Seigyo are not a game developer, but rather a company that provides equipment for factory production lines, and this was their first time developing an actual video game.
According to representative Shohei Shinto, given that the company had no previous experience in game development, at first, he wasn’t that confident that he could make a product as promising as his idea was. However, inspired by the worldwide fame of Fortnite, Shinto decided to directly contact developer Epic Games for advice. Apparently, Epic Games was open for cooperation and shared enough of their know-how for Shinto’s team to lay down the groundwork for game development.
While the game’s main purpose is to add more variety to boring and repetitive manual work, another one of its features is that it keeps track of the workers’ productivity. Based on data collected so far, after the implementation of Real Focus Synergy in Maruwa’s factory, worker productivity has risen by around 8%, with some workers increasing their productivity by as much as 18% in the first week. “As it is getting more socially acceptable to ‘have fun’ working on the production line, I feel video games intended for use in manufacturing could potentially advance even further,” Shinto commented.
I can’t deny that my habit of watching YouTube at work probably causes my productivity to drop somewhat… And I do feel guilty enough to consider developing better habits, but I do enjoy learning all sorts of history. Maybe include some educational materials, like baking bilingual training into the game for bonus points would be cool.