How AR is transforming the industrial landscape

Augmented reality (AR) is a powerful technology that uses a combination of sensors and algorithms to track a user's position and movement within their environment and enhance their real-world view by overlaying their digital interactions. Its capacity to anchor digital elements wherever they are placed makes it an ideal tool for realistic collaboration between remote teams and for receiving safe support in heavy-duty industrial environments.

With organizations jumping on the bandwagon of Industry 4.0, adoption of AR is inevitably the next step in the transformation process. Shop floor personnel and ground crews are the first to experience the immediate effects of using augmented reality in their daily routines. It speeds up their manufacturing processes in the assembly line, helps them get visual remote assistance from the maintenance crew in case of machine breakdown, and lets them pass the assembly through quality control with minimum errors.

How to implement AR in your business? A step-by-step guide

While AR offers a plethora of benefits to whoever implements it, it is essential to understand where AR is truly needed in your business processes to unlock its full potential while maintaining your budget.

01 Decide what you want to solve or achieve

The first step in AR implementation is to set a clear target or a vision for your business. Answering questions like "What are the final outcomes I want to achieve?" and "What is the best way to reach those outcomes?" can put you in the right direction from the start and prevent costly disruptions in the future.

02 Identify areas of improvement

With clear directives in place, it's time to assess your current business ecosystem and look at the processes that are done regularly, the workforce behind each process, and how they are operating through each task. This helps you understand where exactly a certain process is lacking in terms of resources or efficiency and how much it needs to be improved.

03 Enhance existing workflows with AR

Instead of creating an entirely new process to incorporate AR, you can find ways to assimilate it into your existing workflows. In this way, your workforce will reduce learning curves and face minimum disruptions while adapting to AR usage.

For example, your customer support team will be using chat or voice tools to communicate with a customer. It can be cumbersome to get all the relevant details without visual context. You can simplify this communication process by adding an AR remote assistance tool to their console. Through the tool, they can see what the customer is seeing and interact with spatial tools to enhance the real-world view.

04 Ensure usage consistency

Once AR is introduced into your digital infrastructure, it is essential to check and maintain its usage over a considerable amount of time before you can measure its efficacy. Promote the usage of AR technology wherever it was intended until using it becomes second nature for your workforce.

05 Measure performance

The success of AR implementation will manifest in the significantly positive results of your key performance indicators (KPIs) such as resolution rates, customer retention, customer satisfaction, factory throughput, and the like, when compared to the pre-implementation stage. This also gives you reliable feedback on where AR is working out and where a few tweaks are needed to get the desired outcomes.

06 Adjust and repeat for others

Once you have made the necessary tweaks and refined the implementation method for success, you can introduce AR to other departments or remote teams that will truly benefit from this technology.

Where do remote teams need AR?

While AR implementation sounds great, you may be wondering where exactly it will make a difference for your remote teams. To help simplify it for you, let's take a look at a few scenarios that your remote teams may be facing in their work day and how AR can turn the tables in their favor.

  • Equipment malfunction at the assembly line

    Imagine a team of your frontline workers working rhythmically at the assembly line of your manufacturing plant and their work is put on hold due to a failure in one of their tools or a robotic arm. An immediate fix is crucial to keep up with the production quota for the day. The maintenance team is located on the far side of the plant, and it will take a while for them to reach the spot.

    Solution: In such cases, an AR maintenance tool like Zoho Lens comes in handy. As soon as the maintenance crew is notified, they can initiate a live camera assistance session from Zoho Lens to connect with the frontline team. They will get live visuals of the issue, which helps them identify the root cause quickly without the back-and-forth relay. With AR annotations and AR comments, they can highlight certain parts of the camera stream and add step-by-step instructions, which the frontline crew can see and execute each step at their pace.

  • Installation of a household appliance

    Let's say a customer has purchased an appliance (like an air fryer or oven) from your showroom. They have trouble setting it up and using it, so they reach out to your support team. It gets confusing to grasp the issue over chat or voice call, so they switch to a video call. However, the confusion goes on because there are no collaboration tools to point out the issue or interact visually with the customer. Additionally, the issue can be solved only by a product specialist who is located elsewhere.

    Solution: With Zoho Lens, the AR collaboration tool, the support team can interact visually with a customer in a shared augmented space. They can freeze the camera stream or magnify a certain area to take a closer look. They can also invite the product specialist to the same session, where they can work together to solve the customer's issue. Their annotations will be differentiated by color, and they can use virtual pointers (annotations that disappear in a few seconds) to prevent visual clutter during interaction.

  • Inspection of construction sites

    Site inspectors are accustomed to traveling long distances to carry out construction site inspections. They carry a bunch of paperwork like blueprints, site reports, checklists, and administrative records that they use during the inspection. It can get tedious, especially if they have multiple sites to cover within a short period of time.

    Solution: Construction AR can ease their burden by enabling them to conduct virtual inspections right from the comfort of their office. Instead of traveling to the construction site, a site inspector can use a remote inspection software to connect with a remote construction crew at anytime, get live visuals of the ongoing project, identify defects or anomalies, and document them using snapshots, session recordings, or session notes. They can also share files like compliance and regulation documentation with the remote crew via chat to ensure adherence to industry standards.

  • Verification of insurance claims

    When clients reach out to their insurance agency from the site of the accident, it's imperative to document the incident site as quickly as possible to retain as much of the evidence as possible for a hassle-free validation process. Sometimes, it is not feasible for a claim adjuster to reach the site on time, owing to the location or traffic, and they may not be able to collect proofs effectively.

    Solution: Instead of trying to collect the evidence and verify the details in person, they can immediately connect with their client in an AR live streaming session and see the incident site as if they were there. If they use an AR software for insurance claims like Zoho Lens, they can capture snapshots of the incident and note down the necessary details in session notes. They can authenticate their client by requesting they share their front camera stream and verify their location using the geolocation feature.

What are the benefits of AR implementation for remote teams?

01 Reduced travel time

The immediate effect of remote teams using AR is transcending geographical boundaries without moving an inch. Remote teams need not be physically present when they can use AR to accomplish that task, thus skipping that trip and saving travel time.

02 Enhanced productivity

AR helps remote teams collaborate more effectively, solve issues faster, and accomplish more objectives in a day, which snowballs into boosted performance and increased productivity.

03 Reduced maintenance downtime

Anytime there's a machinery breakdown or faulty hardware, maintenance crews can handle them instantly with AR and reduce downtime significantly. AR also empowers them to handle multiple repairs at the same time, boosting overall efficiency.

04 Improved first-time resolution rates

Conventionally, a service team travels to a customer's location to diagnose the issue and then make a second visit with the necessary parts to resolve it. When they use AR, they can diagnose the issue from their desk, order the necessary parts, and then make one final visit to resolve it. This helps reduce service visits and improve first-time fixes in case of minor issues.

05 Improved customer satisfaction

When service teams engage with their customers in AR, they can see the issue themselves, easing their customer's burden in giving verbal descriptions of the issue and trying to explain the technicality of it. AR improves the customer experience where they receive quick support, and their queries are resolved by remote teams within minutes.

06 Enhanced safety in training

Depending on the product, frontline workers may need to handle hazardous materials or function in extreme environments like furnaces, boiler rooms, or cold storage. Trainers can use AR to provide remote training and onboarding, where recruits can see the trainer's actions live while they go through routines and procedures in that workstation.

06 Boosted sustainability

Service teams have all the documentation within reach, from user manuals to maintenance logs and reports. This requires a lot of paperwork, which can be difficult to keep track of in the long run. AR software, such as Zoho Lens, allows them to go paperless, where user manuals can be transferred to work instructions and reduced to a simple QR code. Maintenance sessions via AR go on record automatically, and relevant files can be viewed anytime.

What are the key features for seamless collaboration with remote teams?

While implementing AR for your remote teams, ensure they have access to a wide range of tools to visualize issues, interact with participants, and document events or milestones achieved during the session. Here are some of the essential features of Zoho Lens, the AR remote assistance software, that will enhance your remote team's problem solving abilities.

AR live streaming: It allows remote teams to share live visuals of their surroundings and get a clear picture of the issue themselves without having to rely on verbal descriptions.

Collaborative AR tools: Along with the usual chat and voice options, spatial tools are a game changer in the problem solving arena. AR annotations, AR comments, and AR measurement help remote teams highlight issues, tag instructions, and measure objects visible on the camera stream. They can also freeze the camera stream at any moment to take a closer look or turn on the flashlight to brighten the user's surroundings.

Scan and documentation tools: Remote teams can document procedures or critical events by recording their sessions, capturing snapshots, and adding session notes for future reference. They can gather information from product labels by scanning QR codes or barcodes within the session and retrieve text from images visible on the camera stream with OCR technology.

Multi-participant sessions: In case of emergencies, remote teams have the option to invite other team members to their session and involve them in an interactive brainstorming session. They can also invite experts outside their organization as guest technicians for valuable insights and instant solutions.

Geolocation: Supervisors can authenticate their remote team's location while in a session with this feature.They can request the team's location, and once they share it, they can view it in any map application.

Work instructions: Routine maintenance and inspection can be automated with this feature. Organizations can create predefined workflows, which can be executed at any time by remote teams. Progress of each work instruction is recorded, and reports are maintained separately.

Browser-based support: While Zoho Lens is entirely browser-based for organizations, it also provides the option for end users to join a session through their mobile browser.

Smart glass support: Remote teams can execute instructions quicker when they are not holding a device in one hand. Smart glasses empower them to receive hands-free support and operate at peak performance. Zoho Lens is supported on popular devices like Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest, RealWear, Epson, and Vuzix. Read more on smart glasses here.

Top notch security and compliance: Zoho Lens is compliant with national or regional guidelines like GDPR, and HIPAA and provides data protection through 256-bit AES encryption protocol.

Analytics and knowledge trails: Zoho Lens maintains logs on sessions, user actions, or settings configurations that help organizations conduct regular audits. Session files are stored securely, which can be used as knowledge trails or training materials. Reports are generated based on session count, session duration, technicians who conducted a session, and work instructions executed.

Close the distance between remote teams with AR remote assistance

Want to get started with AR for your remote teams? Sign up for a 15-day free trial of Zoho Lens, our AR remote assistance software that empowers your workforce to solve real-world issues remotely.

You can also get additional support for specific questions regarding features by registering for a free personalized demo.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, AR empowers trainers to conduct interactive, hands-free training sessions from hazardous working conditions while trainees remain in a relatively safe environment. AR training for remote teams ensures quick transfer and capture of expert knowledge with minimal disruption. Frontline teams using AR can opt for self-training sessions to bridge knowledge gaps or learn about new processes within their schedule, without needing the physical presence of an expert.

Yes, AR remote assistance apps like Zoho Lens are securely built for enterprise use. Security measures like multi-factor authentication (MFA), role-based access, and action log viewer gives the admin control over who has access to the organization and prevents unauthorized use. Additionally, industry standard protocols like SSL and 256-bit AES encryption protects organization and session data at all times.

You need to choose an AR app that will work for your remote teams and onboard them. If you've chosen Zoho Lens, all you need to do is sign up for an account, where you'll get the 15-day free trial. You can invite your remote team members to your Lens organization, assign them to different departments, and start conducting AR sessions with your remote teams. You can get a trial extension if you need more time for evaluation or go ahead with choosing a plan (Free, Standard or Professional) that works for you.

In most cases, remote participants need to install an app for joining an AR session. However, there are browser-based AR apps like Zoho Lens that allow remote users to join an AR session without installing an app. All they have to do is use the session invitation sent by the technician and they will be able to join the session directly from the browser.