AR in Manufacturing
See productivity in a whole new dimension
Scale your expertise with AR knowledge solutions.
Don’t underestimate the benefit of showing someone. Whether by live annotation or work instructions, the WorkLink Platform converges the digital and physical worlds to improve productivity and processes, streamline operations, and field the smartest team in your industry.
COMPONENT INSPECTIONS
Customers of a large industrial equipment distributor have to make regular trips to the service center for component inspection of their equipment. These visits often require long drives to, and wait times at, the service center which increases downtime of the equipment. Using Remote AR, customers can call in to the service center and do the component inspection without leaving their office, saving time and money, and enhancing component failure discussions and analysis.
EXPERT DIAGNOSIS & GUIDANCE
Broken parts are shipped into a repair center for a manufacturing equipment supplier. Often, the technicians on site are not capable of diagnosing and fixing the problem, requiring an expert to come in to do the repair. Using Remote AR, the technician now calls the expert to diagnose and provide guidance on the problem, even if it is after hours, saving the company travel costs and labor time of the expert, and significantly decreasing repair downtime for customers.
INDUSTRIAL HVAC MAINTENANCE
Field service technicians for an industrial HVAC manufacturer are inexperienced and costly to train. Using WorkLink, the company can train the technicians on the job by having them follow smart instructions for regularly scheduled maintenance procedures. In addition, they can use Remote AR to call an expert for help whenever they run into a new or complex problem, decreasing mean time to resolution and minimizing repeat service visits.
EMERGENCY TECHNICIAN SUPPORT
When a natural disaster leads to power outages for thousands of customers, an electric utility company brings in emergency field technicians to help handle the extra workload. Using Remote AR, the emergency technicians can connect to a local expert to efficiently and safely fix equipment they are unfamiliar with, restoring their customers power faster than ever.
SMART METER INSTALLATION
Electric utilities around the world are modernizing their grid technology, with a specific focus on smart meters to attract more customers and because of new government regulations. However, the utility field service organizations are not large enough to handle all the work, and the technicians are struggling to install smart meters given the new technology which is leading to ~20% installation failure rates in some cases. Using WorkLink to make installation instructions, companies can leverage any local certified electrician to install smart meters, and significantly reduce the error rate. In addition, the electricians can use Remote AR, to contact experts in case of unique or complex problems.
GRID TECHNICIAN SAFETY
The field service technicians for an electric utility have high turnover, with ~40% of the workforce being new within the last 12 months. Safety of these workers is the top priority of the company as there is a high risk of injury and even death. Using Remote AR, an expert technician can guide new technicians out in the field to ensure they complete their jobs safely and efficiently.
MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT SETUP
Setup of injection molding machines for new parts in manufacturing is tricky and errors can be extremely costly. Normally, skilled experts from the company headquarters fly around the world to setup these machines when manufacturing requirements change. Using Remote AR, the experts can guide local technicians on setup and perform finished good inspections, saving the company significant travel costs and speeding up the facility setup time.
MANUFACTURING ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS
The manufacture of certain industrial and aerospace equipment is still performed largely by hand as it is done in low volume and is highly complex. Today, workers follow paper instructions. Using WorkLink smart instructions instead of paper instructions increases efficiency of the workers by ~35%, and eliminates costly errors. In addition, authoring of the instructions in WorkLink takes about the same amount of effort as writing paper instructions, resulting in a huge return on investment for manufacturing companies.
Use cases: See the WorkLink Platform in action.
Bandsaw: in-place instructions
When 3D models of equipment are not available, instructions can be created which directly reference the working environment via arrows, text, photos and video.
Gearbox: timed assembly
Modeled after an aerospace client’s procedure, this sequence shows augmented assembly instructions which allow new workers to perform at similar levels as experienced ones.
Drone: Maintenance & Repair
With any device, anyone can quickly understand the various product features as well as access AR work instructions for key maintenance procedures to help them successfully perform the update or repair.
