Maintenance operations are quite complex and involve many functions and tasks that include repairs, replacement of structural parts and components, and other activities necessary to maintain various equipment in order to continue to provide ongoing and uninterrupted services. In fact, maintenance operations for businesses operating in various types of industries are considered one of the key points for the progress of the business as a whole. Moreover, at the same time, these operations are quite expensive and usually time-consuming. Businesses constantly face various challenges for equipment maintenance and spend large amounts of money on the completion of their successful tasks. It often happens that the lack of a specialized workforce to carry out these processes causes delays at the site that in most cases interrupts other processes such as production, until the moment when the necessary repairs are done. The many challenges that maintenance has are forcing managers to explore innovative solutions that can facilitate these maintenance processes. One of these solutions is the Augmented Reality (AR), a technology that is powerfully improving the work on the sites, empowering the workforce with plenty of facilities to perform their job.

This technology makes it possible to bring the right expertise to the site in real-time, through the connection that is created between the centre’s experts and the site workers. Thanks to the collaboration enabled by this technology, the site workers are able to perform maintenance in a short time by eliminating the extra costs that the bringing of experts to the site could have required. AR-based Remote Assistance shows to be quite effective, saving considerable time and reducing extra costs. In most cases, specialists might not be available on-site, which leads to transportation costs and long equipment outages. In addition, the traditional way of reviewing manuals by site workers is complicated as these manuals are difficult to understand and take time to assimilate the information they provide.

What we are seeing day by day is that large-scale AR applications are being implemented to facilitate expert-led assistance. Let’s take a closer look at how this technology is delivering great benefits to many businesses through remote assistance.

AR-based Remote Assistance enables real-time support for site workers during the performance of their maintenance-related tasks. In this way, it becomes possible to carry out the maintenance process faster but also in a much easier way. Now thanks to this remote assistance the centre experts through live video streaming and different AR tools offer their expertise to work towards the same goals as the site workers and for the same issues. All of this makes it possible to perform the maintenance process more efficiently, significantly increasing the engagement and quality of work by the site workers.

Thanks to AR-Remote Assistance, it is now possible to replace the traditional way of sending maintenance experts to the site. This process, which still incurs extra costs due to the high cost of travel, has now been significantly facilitated. Through AR tools collaboration the expert who can be thousands of miles away from the site provides the right instructions for the employees who are currently stationed on the site. This provision of proper guidance is carried out without delay and without the need to travel from one location to another.

The lack of knowledge that site employees have in most cases leads to fatal errors that cause millions of dollars in damage by disrupting many processes. But now all this is prevented through AR- Remote Assistance. The expert of the centre through AR annotations makes it possible to warn employees about possible various mistakes and risks while performing their duties. This, in addition to preventing large cost damages that can occur from human error at the same time, increases the safety of workers. They can also implement AR Remote Assistance in smart glasses, which ensures them with the ability to perform their tasks hands-free and in safe positions.

As mentioned above, this technology already facilitates field maintenance processes by reducing maintenance costs and reducing many errors. AR can improve maintenance practices, thus creating an environment of interaction between experts and site workers. Now maintenance thanks to AR technology becomes more and more facilitated without the need to bring technical expertise to the site. We can easily claim that through this technology the right expertise comes in real-time and virtually on the site by changing fundamentally the way of how maintenance processes are being executed.

Remote Maintenance with AR Technology was originally published in AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.