REAL-TIME REMOTE ASSISTANCE WITH AUGMENTED REALITY
Reduced downtime
by resolving issues faster
Empowered workforce through instant visual guidance from remote experts
Shorter time to productivity for new workers with better access to knowledge
CHALLENGE
DELAYED ON-SITE SUPPORT COMPROMISES FACILITY PERFORMANCE
At industrial facilities, field personnel are the key workers that keep a variety of equipment running at peak capacity around the clock. As systems have become more complex and specialized, it's impossible for them to know how to fix or maintain every system or condition. In those situations, field personnel can turn to ABB expert support centers for access to on-the-spot knowledge and assistance from a global team of resources.

Traditionally, when an abnormal process or equipment condition is reported, the expert support center staff would arrange for a dedicated service engineer to travel to the facility and provide on-site support.
However, as some facilities are in remote locations, service engineers can take days to arrive. Once they are on site, they may not be able to offer the right fix on the first visit, which extends repair times even further. Consequently, producers face increased downtime, high maintenance costs, and long-term negative impacts on asset life and production.

“For trouble shooting, visual remote support allows us to eliminate the normal back and forth necessary to reach a common understanding of the problem. This means we can get to the cause faster. In many cases, by being able to see what the customer sees on site, we can guide them through the repair instead of dispatching an engineer. Reduced site visits equal lower costs, higher equipment availability and less risk.”
– Kim Fenrich, Digital Services Product Manager, ABB Process Automation
SOLUTION

REAL-TIME SUPPORT APP IMPROVES REMOTE COLLABORATION
ABB Ability™ Remote Insights for service is a collaborative application that improves support between remote experts and field personnel by allowing annotations to be laid over live video using Augmented Reality technology. The app allows field service personnel to connect remotely to the right expert instead of waiting for on-site support. The expert can highlight items in view and add annotations in the live video stream visible for the field worker.

This eliminates the uncertainty during repairs because the remote expert can see exactly what the field worker sees and guide them through the procedure.
ABB Ability™ Remote Insights for service gives instant access to expert knowledge on phones, tablets and smart glasses. Using ABB corporate branding for easy recognizability, the app is based on the REFLEKT Remote white label solution. This new way of providing support allows ABB to simplify maintenance, reduce downtime, increase equipment effectiveness and improve customer satisfaction.