Switzerland’s LBA and militia army are speeding up the maintenance and repair of vehicles and machines with data glasses from RealWear. Telemaintenance enables experts to provide support in real time without having to be on site, saving considerable travelling time. Under the project management of “Swiss Innovation Forces”, the realisation was carried out together with our partner Augment IT.
The challenge
Those responsible for logistics and maintenance were faced with the challenge of having to bring specialists from the central logistics centre to the vehicles for urgent repairs or maintenance work. Often, the need for special spare parts could only be determined through on-site diagnosis, which caused additional time for procurement. This situation led to considerable delays and inefficient deployment of specialists. During the downtime, operations came to a standstill and the valuable operating time of the vehicles was not utilised efficiently.
Solution
When developing the AR solution approach, those responsible focussed on simplicity and security. The prerequisite for this was not only a separate process in which areas of the army remote support would make particular sense. During an intensive one-day workshop on the topics of hardware and software, concerns and barriers to operations were also jointly overcome. Once again, it was shown that an initial intensive focus on the integration or further development of process landscapes can ultimately lead to savings in time and resources.
Troop technicians now receive support from experts from all logistics centres in complicated cases via RealWear data glasses. They can see live what the craftsmen are doing on site and can help immediately, while the users can concentrate fully on the repair.
“For me, the greatest value of Telemaintenance is saving our employees’ travelling time.”
David Hartenbach, Head of Readiness at the Armed Forces Logistics Centre (ALC) Hinwil
The starting point was successfully set in the summer with 25 “Swiss suitcases”. These include
- a RealWear Navigator 520
- an external charger and extra battery
- a SIM card modem to attach to the Navigator