“We’ve always done it this way - why do we need to change?” The danger with this approach and attitude is that it prevents progression. While your teams resist innovation and change your competitors are pulling ahead.
That said, adopting emerging tech just because it’s the shiny new thing is also unwise - especially when that tech is deployed for use in potentially dangerous industrial settings. To incorporate new devices into your processes, you need to know that there will be apparent, practical benefits.
Having a mobile device that allows you to complete online forms and take guided instructions whilst having your hands free (and your sight and hearing), is an obvious practical benefit. Wearables are changing the field inspection and maintenance game. The RealWear® HMT-1 and HMT-1Z are emerging as the best hands-free devices for on-site teams. They can be worn attached to hard hats, ball caps, or on its own without losing efficacy and features a long list of practical benefits to your workers and for your business.
RealWear® headsets increase the safety of your field service teams, increase the efficiency of your data collection from the field, improve training, and help keep processes and workflows for service calls and inspections consistent and thorough.
A Safer Workforce
A company’s workers are its life’s blood. Ensuring they can carry out their tasks safely must be a top priority. And make no mistake: an industrial environment can be very dangerous - even to experienced field service agents.
The HMT-1 is an excellent tool for improved worker safety because it allows the connected worker to keep their hands free to do the job at hand, but also importantly does not impede vision or hearing. It your field services staff to check off steps on an inspection checklist with voice commands instead of using pen and paper or a tablet.
Tablets and other mobile smartphone devices require workers to remove their gloves to operate the touch screens, and paper is easily damaged, lost, or otherwise rendered unreadable. By removing the need to keep track of a clipboard or tablet and eliminating the necessity of interrupting an inspection or maintenance call to mark progress or write a comment, the HMT-1 allows your worker to stay focused on the task at hand and finish faster, with higher data quality, without sacrificing safety.
Sometimes, potential clients are dubious about a device controlled with sound because they know how loud a job site can be. But RealWear® headset microphones are tested in high-stress environments to ensure that they work correct -even in sonic environments that would severely damage unprotected ears.
And to ensure worker safety through improved focus, you can even move the screen of the RealWear® smart glasses out of your view. If having a checklist or schematic pulled up will help, the screen is there for the worker. If not, they can take advantage of the RealWear® configure capability to keep both eyes and hands on the job in front of them without distraction.
More Efficient Data Gathering
Data gathering from field service calls and inspections is extremely valuable. Getting actionable information about how your clients and customers are using your products and services in the real world benefits your company immensely.
From discovering upselling opportunities to gaining insights to use in contract pitches to other businesses and organizations to spotting gaps in client workflows and processes that your development team can create products to fill and more, data from the field is as good as gold—but only when it is accurate.
RealWear® helps ensure accuracy by making data gathering simple. Again, not relying on paper or tablets means that your field team can gather data as they work without stopping to remove their gloves to write down observations. They can capture still images and videos showing the equipment they are working on from their exact perspectives.
And with the help of customized, branded apps powered by JourneyApps, you can even gather data while offline. Many industrial locations are in remote areas or are built with necessarily heavy-duty materials, meaning your devices may not be able to connect to the internet while completing a call. With the right software, RealWear® devices don’t need to be online to gather information. Your team can do the job and sync the data seamlessly via the cloud once a connection has been restored.
Improved Training and Communication
Knowledge transfer can be tricky in industrial environments. It’s very loud, and paying your trainer and trainee to go out on field service calls can be expensive. Not to mention that it isn’t always simple or safe for two people to get in a position to see what is happening with a piece of equipment.
This is where RealWear® can really make a difference. By incorporating Assisted Reality (aR) and Augmented Reality (AR) into your field service software, you allow your most experienced team members to teach new workers without needing to send multiple service agents into the field.
Many skilled technicians thrive when presented with opportunities for experiential learning or learning by doing. It isn’t enough to watch someone complete a task. They need to be able to get their hands dirty to understand and retain technical information.
Using aR and/or AR allows new technicians to go into the field with an experienced trainer viewing the work through their headset and answering questions if and when they arise.
Utilizing this technology can also help your field team better communicate their needs and new ideas to decision makers. With aR, they don’t have to try to describe what they mean. They can show examples and highlight problem areas or opportunity vectors to members of leadership.
Standardized Workflows
One of the most important benefits that can come with the incorporation of RealWear® HMT-1 headsets is the one that is perhaps the least glamorous—creating efficient, standardized processes for inspections.
Creating a process that ensures that your team members check out your equipment thoroughly and that can connect to resources such as schematics or breakdowns of common mistakes made by operators that can lead to suboptimal performance will save your team members time on the job and save you money through their efficiency.
Having your workflow standardized through an app on a RealWear® device allows for automated notifications if a step in the inspection has been skipped. The easily accessed checklists and instructions on a headset device help your team complete their task correctly the first time.
And suppose a customer claims a job was not completed to their satisfaction. In that case, you can look through the data and images captured during the job to verify their claims and use those records to help your field technician improve their performance on their next call.
RealWear®: The Most Valuable Tool in Field Service
Sticking with old technology because of tradition is folly. Jumping to new technology just because it now exists shows equally poor judgment. The RealWear® HMT-1 hits the sweet spot between those extremes.
By incorporating RealWear®, you gain tangible benefits in improved data gathering and more efficient, standardized workflows. You also gain the power of augmented experiential learning opportunities for new team members. And, of course, you protect your workforce by giving them the ability to keep both hands and eyes on the task in front of them instead of backing away to make notes every five minutes.
With a platform like M-Connect Field Services that utilizes software powered by JourneyApps development innovations, RealWear® can take your field services teams to a whole new level. Contact one of our experts today to see how you can take advantage of these devices.
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