Learning Launch - Augmented Reality for Remote Peer to Peer Support

Challenge

It should not come as a surprise that this reflection is influenced by COVID-19; the impact on

people and businesses world wide is hard to ignore.    My employer fabricates, amongst other things, materials essential to the production of

Personal Protective Equipment for Health Care Workers.    To ensure that our factory assets continue to function and produce material, we employ

several technicians and engineers, who are spread across our different locations and routinely

travel between sites to perform maintenance, provide training and support their colleagues.    Honoring and applying the many controls around social distancing and travel present unique

opportunities for innovation. We are focussing on developing solutions that allow our

engineers and technicians to continue working as before, and where not possible, support a

colleague in being able to perform the required actions at a safe distance. A key criteria is

finding solutions that can be quickly deployed and easily scaled.      Selection    We examined a few products over the course of a 2 week period and finally agreed on running

a ‘Learning Launch’ for an Augmented Reality based Product that allows direct annotation on a

live video, and also works with Google Glass like products, allowing personnel to keep their

hands free to perform a task while being in conversation with a colleague at the same time.    Application    For our tests, we limited ourselves to three sites - 2 with full operations and 1 remote Finishing

and Distribution Center.     We first listed down the general scenarios where the engineers and technicians interact with

each other over the course of the work day / work week. We also looked at where our experts

were based and how frequently they were contacted for support or needed to travel across to

other sites for maintenance, support or training.     With the scenarios identified, we proceeded to test the product’s functionality across the sites,

starting simply with two parties just connecting and learning to use the tool and then moving

on to testing the features during actual maintenance cycles, with the Engineer / Expert ‘looking

over the shoulder’ and guiding the technician during the session by drawing on or marking

areas of interest or action.

Insights    By putting the product into play via the Learning Launch, we were able to test out the product’s

perceived benefits  against our assumptions of its usefulness and value.    This exercise led to some very interesting insights:

● While the product’s performance on a mobile phone or tablet, even in low bandwidth

was quite impressive, it did not perform nearly as well when used in the Hands Free

mode.

● Beyond the Engineer / Technician relationship, participants identified that the

product’s functionality would prove useful for other stakeholders and departments as

well, possibly even with customers.

● The product could even be used to address an initially unarticulated need where the

smaller sites did not have the full staff required to perform maintenance or cover

support for a 24 hour period.

While the benefits were obvious, working ‘hands free’ was a key criteria for tool selection and

the organization has decided to delay further action until such time that the vendor corrects

these issues and provides a more stable experience, something we are in conversation with

them over.    Conclusion    By using the Learning Launch, we were able to prove the benefits we expected the tool to

provide, while also getting a feel for how the product would work out in the field and get an

understanding of whether the product would become a part of the standard toolkit for our

Operations teams, even beyond the crisis.    Further launches are being planned as we wait for the vendor to make the changes we have

requested in the product’s version for hands free use, as well as conversations with other

departments about use cases where this product might serve a purpose.


Learning Launch - Augmented Reality for Remote Peer to Peer Support Challenge It should not come as a surprise that this reflection is influenced by COVID-19 ; the impact on people and businesses world wide is hard to ignore . My employer fabricates , amongst other things , materials essential to the production of Personal Protective Equipment for Health Care Workers . To ensure that our factory assets continue to function and produce material , we employ several technicians and engineers , who are spread across our different locations and routinely travel between sites to perform maintenance , provide training and support their colleagues . Honoring and applying the many controls around social distancing and travel present unique opportunities for innovation . We are focussing on developing solutions that allow our engineers and technicians to continue working as before , and where not possible , support a colleague in being able to perform the required actions at a safe distance . A key criteria is finding solutions that can be quickly deployed and easily scaled . Selection We examined a few products over the course of a 2 week period and finally agreed on running a ‘ Learning Launch ’ for an Augmented Reality based Product that allows direct annotation on a live video , and also works with Google Glass like products , allowing personnel to keep their hands free to perform a task while being in conversation with a colleague at the same time . Application For our tests , we limited ourselves to three sites - 2 with full operations and 1 remote Finishing and Distribution Center . We first listed down the general scenarios where the engineers and technicians interact with each other over the course of the work day / work week . We also looked at where our experts were based and how frequently they were contacted for support or needed to travel across to other sites for maintenance , support or training . With the scenarios identified , we proceeded to test the product ’s functionality across the sites , starting simply with two parties just connecting and learning to use the tool and then moving on to testing the features during actual maintenance cycles , with the Engineer / Expert ‘ looking over the shoulder ’ and guiding the technician during the session by drawing on or marking areas of interest or action . Insights By putting the product into play via the Learning Launch , we were able to test out the product ’s perceived benefits against our assumptions of its usefulness and value . This exercise led to some very interesting insights : ● While the product ’s performance on a mobile phone or tablet , even in low bandwidth was quite impressive , it did not perform nearly as well when used in the Hands Free mode . ● Beyond the Engineer / Technician relationship , participants identified that the product ’s functionality would prove useful for other stakeholders and departments as well , possibly even with customers . ● The product could even be used to address an initially unarticulated need where the smaller sites did not have the full staff required to perform maintenance or cover support for a 24 hour period . While the benefits were obvious , working ‘ hands free ’ was a key criteria for tool selection and the organization has decided to delay further action until such time that the vendor corrects these issues and provides a more stable experience , something we are in conversation with them over . Conclusion By using the Learning Launch , we were able to prove the benefits we expected the tool to provide , while also getting a feel for how the product would work out in the field and get an understanding of whether the product would become a part of the standard toolkit for our Operations teams , even beyond the crisis . Further launches are being planned as we wait for the vendor to make the changes we have requested in the product ’s version for hands free use , as well as conversations with other departments about use cases where this product might serve a purpose .