In the field service industry, augmented reality (AR) can play a significant role in changing the way field technicians and the business collaborates to resolve technical issues, provide support and access documentation. Emerging technologies such as AR smart glasses can overlay digital information (such as text, video or audio) onto human field of views, interactively and in real-time. ABI Research sees a turning point coming up for AR smart glasses, predicting that 21 million units of AR smart glasses will be shipped in 2020, with sales expected to reach $100 billion.
First a quick definition: AR refers to the process of superimposing a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world. Mixed reality is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations.
Historically, service technicians had to sift through paper manuals or search their own memories to find a fix for complex equipment issues. This was an onerous process to go through and often resulted in a disgruntled customer.
Today, however, AR headsets provide technicians with the ability to communicate, collaborate and solve issues more efficiently. They could be dispatched to a job where they could see the service manual, real-time data and technical details about the product directly overlaid on it. There would be no need for a clunky laptop, phoning a colleague for assistance or contacting the back office for customer information; everything they need would be accessible with a flick of their head.
Empowering less skilled workforces
Video collaboration with augmented peer-to-peer help is being designed and implemented to connect less skilled technicians with more skilled ones remotely. A technician with specific areas of expertise may reside in an office and virtually walk an apprentice through a service call, step by step. Markups can be made during a video call between an expert and field technician to visually show what needs to be done and to be sure the field technician is clear about what to perform service on. The expert can draw a circle or arrow on a screen to highlight a specific area, eliminating costly mistakes. AR allows experts to take those of less skill through the entire process. Not with a manual and not on the phone, but they can actually see what they are doing.
“Video collaboration with augmented peer-to-peer help is being designed and implemented to connect less skilled technicians with more skilled ones remotely.”
Many technicians are performing this peer-to-peer help in ad hoc ways today using tools like Facetime and Skype. This, however, has resulted in issues. Sending a Facetime request to another technician can be disruptive. It is also difficult for the technician requesting help to know who to contact and if they are available.
Leveraging lessons of the past
An aging workforce is putting pressure on service organizations. Companies are recording repairs being performed on older pieces of equipment to be used as a reference by less experienced technicians. By utilizing AR to make markups pointing to specific equipment details, service companies can create a searchable library using descriptive metadata, and hashtags for quick access. This is a great way to offer on-the-job training and avoids the downtime and loss of productivity associated with having the entire team come into the office to learn new techniques.
Collaborative video tools not only provide the field team with the real-time assistance when solving complex issues, but they also connect field service to the entire organization. Video content, such as markups and screenshots, can be captured by AR tools and stored in the cloud to be tied with a work order and include valuable metadata such as geolocation, type of equipment, date of the last service, etc. If such data is centrally stored and can be easily accessed, it could be used for new technician training, proof of work and so on.
