On March 16th, time seemingly froze. Our global field operations team was preparing for one of our largest installation projects to date when we were notified that COVID-19 would not only thwart that installation but pause every other installation and site visit on the horizon. We had to quickly pivot to remote…
Months of planning for critical site surveys and installations were immediately irrelevant. We had to cancel or delay every upcoming on-site project and installation indefinitely. Government regulations rightfully required social distancing measures at manufacturing facilities and companies moved to protect their teams by immediately restricting outside access to their facilities or closing them altogether.
But luckily, some of us were already working toward a solution — one that would require our best minds to remotely collaborate with our customer’s on-site experts to keep Machine Health projects on track — remote guided installation.
Pivoting to Remote Guided Installations
While our services and installation team generally work hand-in-hand with our customers, this was much more complex. We knew that we would need to build the process of remote guided installations dynamically, learning and adapting as we went, to ensure that our customers would receive the same quality installation that they would have pre-pandemic.
But we still had questions about the new process. How would our customers perceive their new Machine Health solution given that they are already facing so many new challenges with the pandemic? And even If they were receptive, would our field team be able to execute a full facility roll-out remotely? And would remote installations affect the quality of our solution?
The manual nature of properly installing sensors was the primary hurdle for the project, but communication and remote training was the key to its success. We adopted new technologies and recorded our installation videos so that we could improve after every project. We made sure to have field installation and reliability experts available to help our customers with any issues that might arise — and it worked, and it’s still working.
Our remote installations are helping us, and our customers, stay on track — and I couldn’t be more proud of our team.
The Future of Manufacturing Hardware Implementation
Moving into the future, we will be able to provide multiple deployment offerings including Augury led, hybrid, and guided alternatives. This, in conjunction with proposed enhancements to our installation platform, utilization of virtual and augmented reality technology, and standardized training programs will allow us to support a quicker time to installation and value for our customers.
