Augmented Reality: The Future Of Field Service
By Brian Albright, Field Technologies
Companies are already deploying AR for service applications to improve resolution rates and address the looming technician shortage.
Augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) have made tremendous strides over the past Afew years. Goldman Sachs has fore ctahset pthaastt forecast that the market for these technologies will reach $80 billion by 2025, and they generally rank near the top of most analysts’ hot technology lists.
AR/VR are already making a splash in a variety of games and mobile apps, and businesses are beginning to adopt the technology as well. Field service organizations specifically are deploying AR/VR both for training purposes and to provide remote support in the field to technicians and customers alike.
While immersive virtual reality systems are generally used for technical training, augmented reality (which superimposes images or information over a real-world image) has gained more traction for hands-on field service work.
In Field Technologies' own 2018 survey data, nearly 25 percent of respondents reported they were using AR technology, an almost 10-point increase over 2017. Twelve percent of respondents were already using AR to provide remote support, from internal experts to field technicians, while another 9 percent are using it so that experienced technicians can assist their younger counterparts in the field. Another 5 percent are using AR to provide remote support to customers.
The potential improvements could have a big impact on customer service and efficiency. A study by The Service Council on AR’s feasibility found that 41 percent of incomplete service visits would benefit from the use of live video or AR sessions.
“Overall, we see that augmented and virtual reality are becoming what we call innovation accelerators,” says Aly Pinder, program director for service innovation and connected products at research firm IDC. “There are certain innovation accelerators like AR, the Internet of Things (IoT), and 3D printing that are accelerating the technological transformation of manufacturing. AR is one of those areas where we see companies having some interest and excitement as they look to improve service.”
While full-scale deployments are still the exception, Pinder says that the technology will have a bigger impact over the next 12 months as companies step up their investments.
AR Implementation Is Expanding
Some of the primary investment drivers for AR include the need to increase productivity, a quest to drive new revenue streams in service, cost reductions, and the idea that optimizing businesses processes is critical. There is also an acute shortage of technicians in many markets, and AR can potentially help fill those gaps by increasing remote support capabilities. “This is not technology for technology’s sake,” Pinder says. “Manufacturers are asking themselves, ‘Can we improve productivity, drive revenue and/or become more efficient while we optimize business processes?’ That’s the lens through which they are viewing augmented and virtual reality in field service.”
Initial opportunities for the technology include supporting training activities for junior engineers and technicians, as well as remote support. “Service organizations can provide remote support and problem solving using this technology,” Pinder says. “We are also seeing self-service applications where customers can leverage these tools to support lighter fixes or less complex problem solving. This goes beyond a basic FAQ and lets customers solve problems and reduce downtime while avoiding a truck roll.”
Pinder identified two vertical markets that seem to be adopting the technology at a rapid rate. The first is the medical device market, where a number of technology vendors are using AR/VR tools to help with equipment training on-site at medical facilities. Heavy equipment and construction is the other, where these solutions can help provide maintenance support for remote equipment that is too large to return to a service depot.
“Medical devices are a market where there are frequent equipment changes, so you can provide the latest compliant work instructions to support the technicians in this highly regulated environment,” Pinder says. “In construction, you can support fixing equipment that you don’t want to have to bring back into a central depot.”
There are early adopters in a number of industries. Fujifilm North America has invested in augmented reality technology, along with document and video sharing solutions, to help address a shortage of experienced technicians. The company has piloted an AR solution from Fieldb it.
Global healthcare company Fresenius Kabi’s service division is also using an AR solution from Help Lightning for training and remote support. The company’s hotline support team can use the system to see what customers are looking at when they call for assistance. Less experienced technicians can also use the system to get better support from product managers and older peers.
BP has equipped field service technicians in its onshore oil and natural gas business with augmented reality technology from Fieldbit to help with repairs, and Caterpillar has tested a system that runs on iPads and that can interface with IoT sensors on its on-site portable generators to access real-time diagnostics and repair procedures. Some car dealerships are even using the technology for diagnostics in their service departments — Porsche recently rolled out a solution in North America that lets technicians use smart glasses for diagnostics, which the automaker claims can shorten service resolution time by up to 40 percent.
Ready For Prime Time
Whereas in the past these AR/VR tools required a heads-up-style display using smart glasses, Pinder says that the expansion of these systems into other types of mobile devices is helping to make them more accessible to service companies. “One key disruptor that manufacturers and service organizations are finding is that they are able to move away from using this with wearables, which can be cost prohibitive,” Pinder says. “You can’t give every technician a set of smart glasses. It’s more affordable as service organizations to use tablets and smartphones as the main channel for AR/VR.”
Field service software providers are also expanding into the AR/VR space. “Three years ago this was more of a partner play, so you had companies like Help Lightning and Librestream partnering with field service application providers,” Pinder says. “Now we see best-of-breed and field service-specific app providers investing in creating their own AR/VR applications.”
AR specialist Fieldbit released version 5.0 of its Fieldbit service application last year, which can work with either smart glasses or smartphones. Field Squared also announced last year that it planned to integrate AR capabilities into its platform.
Astea has integrated the XOi Vision solution into its software products so that technicians can use cameras to help create visual records of their service work. PTC has created a customizable VuMark AR code that can be placed on an item to link it to an AR experience using a mobile device.
Librestream is even looking at creating its own field service application to support a wider range of solutions. “These companies don’t want to be in a position where Android can take away their viability in the future,” Pinder says. “They want to support a wider range of solutions.”
Change management remains the biggest hurdle to adoption, Pinder says. “Service organizations have to understand what the ‘lowest hanging fruit’ application is that can be widely adopted in the easiest manner across their technician base,” Pinder says. “There are still a lot of service organizations that are just now moving from paper to something else. Do they want to take that big leap into AR/VR or just deploy that first mobile app? Are we seeing enough manufacturing and service organizations that are mature enough in their operations to look at this as being the first opportunity to take? And are the technicians ready to move from what they have been doing to that next step?”
There are also more practical barriers. If you want to provide schematics and other information to a technician via an AR tool, that will require a lot of up-front programming and data collection in order to make sure that you have the right information available. For large companies, that can represent a huge investment. Training technicians is also a challenge, since these systems can be awkward to interact with at the beginning.
The catalyst for adoption, though, is likely going to be the looming retirement of so many experienced technicians. “You may need innovative technology to support connecting with that new generation of millennials who want to work for you in this environment,” Pinder says. “If you can support tools like AR/ VR, that can help bring them in.”