# Enhancing Industrial Processes Through Augmented Reality: A Scoping Review
## 1 Introduction  
The optimisation of industrial processes in today's increasingly digitalised and globalised business world demands that companies and industries implement innovative strategies to maintain their competitiveness among manufacturers, nationally and internationally, to ensure their permanence in the global market. In this context, business competitiveness is enhanced not only through traditional cost reduction, but also by adopting an organisational approach that fosters innovation and ensures long-term competitiveness to devise new ways to improve customer satisfaction [1, 2, 3]. This is why continuous improvement has become a crucial objective for companies seeking to improve their efficiency, productivity and competitiveness in the market. This need arises in a context of constant technologicalevolution and global competition, where companies must adapt to maximise their operational performance and meet market demands; therefore, the optimisation of industrial processes is vital for its ability to improve the use of resources, reduce costs, minimise production times and increase the quality of products or services offered. Today, the concept of Industry 4.0 represents a new paradigm for organising the manufacturing process, characterised by increasing levels of digitisation and automation capable of driving the digital transformation of industries towards so-called smart factories [4]. Indeed, implementing smart production is of paramount importance to meet the demands of rapidly growing consumers in the global market to achieve high productivity and provide high-quality products at reduced cost and time. In this context, the application of emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR) as part of Industry 4.0 emerges as a promising technology that offers potential benefits in terms of process improvement and decision making, and has emerged as a promising tool to drive these continuous improvement efforts in optimising industrial processes [5]. Modern AR technology applies virtual information to the real world through computer technologies: the real environment and virtual objects are superimposed on the same image or space in real time. Similarly, AR has been found to be particularly beneficial for maintenance, training, assembly and inspection and quality control activities [6]. When it comes to the latter, the value and benefits of AR technologies become more evident as the complexity of the elements and assemblies to be inspected increases and AR offers a variety of applications that can revolutionise the way industrial processes are managed and improved. However, despite the growing interest in AR technology in industrial processes, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of how this technology can be effectively employed to optimise specific processes in different industrial sectors [7; 8]. The purpose of this systematic review is to provide a clear and updated perspective on the successful application of AR in industrial processes. The review identified that studies focusing on the optimisation of industrial processes through the use of AR remain limited. Therefore, this analysis examines different articles using the PRISMA methodology to better understand the impact and potential of AR in the optimisation of industrial processes. This is achieved through an analytical reading of publications to identify the specific industrial processes where AR has been successfully implemented. Finally, the review determines the degree of optimisation achieved through a quantitative analysis. A systematic review of the optimisation of industrial processes through the application of AR is based on several essential reasons. Firstly, industry is undergoing a rapid transformation driven by technological advances, and AR is positioned as a promising tool to improve efficiency and productivity in industrial processes [9; 10].