And yet, this period has taught us that we are very flexible. With the right tools all the work can continue. More than that, we are seeing a lot of new opportunities for structural improvements to our work!

Technology accelerates and connects

With everything that has been going on, we almost forgot that we have been dealing with a massive problem for years: the shortage of properly trained technical personnel!  A shortage that will only get worse with the ageing of personnel. It is incredibly important to solve this problem, because we can’t force later generations into technical education. But what we can do is make technical work more attractive for new generations by introducing cool technologies. Technologies that help make communication between people easier but also help retain knowledge. So integrating AR and Remote Support in your EAM Platform offers many advantages.

Four ways in which Augmented Reality and Remote Support create value!

1. Labour productivity

By minimising inefficient labour hours and using experts in a smarter way, you can increase the labour productivity of all of your professionals. You don’t always have to have multiple people in one place, because you can very easily have someone remotely monitor your work and give instructions. You don’t necessarily have to meet for the weekly meeting anymore, because in many cases this can also very easily be done remotely. One expert can support multiple colleagues by using Remote Support and AR. And many jobs for which everyone used to gather in one location can now be done with fewer people. This leads to more tool time, which is important in a time of shortage.

2. Knowledge retention

So there is a shortage of technical personnel on the job market. This has caused companies to compete with each other by poaching the best people. By doing so, they try to retain knowledge about management and maintenance. But why don’t organisations invest in retaining knowledge and making it available for everyone? Because knowledge can very easily be retained by further digitising the work processes in your organisation. AR and Remote Support technologies do not only make communication very easy, they also make it possible to record sessions with one click of a button. Record more complex maintenance jobs so they can be shown to new employees. Visualise instructions and maintenance steps that can be used in periodical maintenance jobs using AR technology. This makes you less dependent on your experts and makes information available for all of your technical employees. And on top of that, older employees can still leave behind their experience without requiring a lot of extra effort. More than that, you can even ask them to serve as a source of information after they retire. Accessible and remotely.

3. Dealing with COVID restrictions

Regardless of the advantages that the integrations with AR and Remote Support offer, it has also become a necessity. COVID-19 has created the need for new rules and regulations. Regulations that force us to work differently. In many cases, it is simply not possible to travel or work together on location. But in order to still continue carrying out our work, we have to use the technologies that are available to us and integrate them in our daily work processes. Therefore, it is essential that the EAM toolbox is also expanded with new, digital tools that are necessary for us to continue to do our jobs.

4. Working safely

New technologies help make the work processes more efficient and also contribute directly to safety, including safety that is related to the COVID-19 rules. But especially they help with better registration of safety processes.

Think of remotely monitoring high-risk work And visualising dangers using AR technology or recording important periodical activities for safety instructions for new employees. In short: these are the easy pickings that also immediately add value for your entire organisation. Because safety is a top priority for all organisations, which they constantly want to improve.

Want to know more?

Want to know about integrating Remote Support of Augmented Reality in your EAM platform? Then take a look at our Partner Ecosystem, in which you can find various partners that can help you with this. On to a more productive and safer future.

Other blogs written by Freddy Vos

Happy to help you at any time
Jeremiah Woodford VP Sales Americas
jeremiah.woodford@ultimo.com