A new T-Systems solution known as Augmented Reality (AR) for Maintenance has received three key awards: the well-known Red Dot Award, the Annual Multimedia Award, and the UX Design Award. Customers can experience this futuristic application by visiting the Design Gallery at Deutsche Telekom Headquarters in Bonn; three business enterprises have already begun using the solution to gain their own insights.
How does the solution work? Maintenance employees wearing special glasses (like HoloLens from Microsoft) receive information about the devices they are working on, including guidelines about how to ideally repair them. All of the information and necessary expert knowledge are available at the repair site, which gives maintenance technicians quite an advantage. Such visual support applications for production and maintenance can drastically reduce costs. The technician is shown what needs to be done – step by step. This makes their work much easier in particularly complex situations. For example, the solution immediately shows technicians which tools to use for specific jobs. It can also automatically reorder spare parts when supplies are running low.
As always, when solutions are very practical and easy to use, you can be sure that there is plenty of complexity in the background: knowledge libraries, the application platform, the security mechanisms, the cloud and the networks needed for data communication, and – last but not least – the AR glasses for displaying the information. Such AR solutions are still in their infancy, but in 2020 when 5G transmission rates reach the millisecond range, Augmented Reality will become a reality – and not just for machine maintenance. The T-Systems package really impressed the jury members. And initial pilot projects show that business customers are also very interested in this solution. The future is here!
