London, UK – RealWear, the world’s leading provider of assisted reality solutions for frontline industrialworkers, announced that Orkel, a Norwegian manufacturer of compactors and other machinery foragriculture, industry and waste management, has standardised on RealWear wearable devices across itsbusiness and dealer network. Orkel aims to provide real-time customer and product support, eliminating waittimes for in-person visits and avoiding costly downtime delays for farmers.
The company’s initial purchase of 40 units through RealWear’s Gold partner Allegra AS, will be used forremote after-sales maintenance, remote servicing and remote commissioning of all its heavy agriculturalmachinery products. Orkel’s research and development team tested a variety of smart glasses beforestandardising on RealWear’s HMT-1® head-mounted displays. According to Orkel, RealWear’s rugged formfactor, safety features, noise cancellation and long battery life were deciding factors.
How the Solution Works
The innovative solution allows Orkel to connect its customers to its service technicians without the need forunnecessary travel. As part of Orkel’s after-sales support offering, each customer in need of commissioningor a technical service receives a kit consisting of the HMT-1, a branded Orkel hardhat, and mounting clips.The customer simply puts on the device, contacts the Orkel technician using voice commands and, afterconnecting, the technician can immediately see exactly what the customer sees through the head-mountedcamera and easy to use software – VSight. The technician then solves the issue. Once resolved, thecustomer may then choose to purchase the RealWear device for their own use or return it to Orkel.
The solution solved a number of pain points for Orkel. For instance, typically its service technicians wererequired to make an in-person customer trip, which involves travel time and environmental costs. A delay infixing the equipment also has the potential to impact the customers’ businesses.
“Our customers really appreciate the value of the system because we are able to provide a much faster levelof support when an issue arises. All too often, our service technicians would travel for what turned out to bea quick fix. Now, with RealWear, many hours of time and CO2 emissions are saved, and most importantlycustomers’ machines are operational again quickly, which is imperative during the harvest season,”commented Svein Erik Syrstad, Technician, Orkel.
Headquartered in Fannrem, Norway, Orkel Group is an established supplier of compactors, round balers andtransport equipment. With a presence in more than 50 countries across the globe, its biggest marketcurrently is mainland China. As the farming and agriculture sectors are heavily dependent on the harvestseason, Orkel’s customer base requires maximum uptime from their Orkel machinery, especially during thebusy season.
On the device, Orkel is using RealWear partner VSight Remote, a remote service and collaboration platformpowered by AR that helps manufacturing companies conduct maintenance operations remotely withAugmented Reality. The Orkel machine’s telemetry system ensures that details about every aspect of themachine’s operation is sent securely to the cloud, enabling Orkel’s service technicians to read the data andguide their customers to the next step in the procedure. This information enables Orkel to target the specificerror more efficiently, and then guide the operator remotely to resolution.
“We really adore this technology because as a research & development engineer, I can watch the work beingdone,” said Magnus Nordås Lervik, Project Engineer, Orkel. “I’m quickly learning better ways to design futuremachinery as I’ve seen first-hand the common issues that arise, and how they are fixed.” Lervik continued, “Using this technology enables our research and development team to look ahead to how we might designproducts in the future from an operator’s perspective.”
“Orkel and its customers are achieving a number of benefits since deploying RealWear’s technology withVSight and Microsoft Teams,” added Jon Arnold, Vice President of EMEA, RealWear Inc. “When looking atthe agricultural industry as a whole, machine downtime impacts productivity and efficiency, especially inshorter and shorter harvest seasons. Remote assistance with RealWear is becoming a gamechanger for thefarming and agriculture industry when every second matters.”
About RealWear
RealWear® is the world’s leading provider of assisted reality wearable solutions that engage, empower, andelevate the modern frontline industrial worker to perform work tasks more safely, and with increasedefficiency and precision. RealWear gives these workers real-time access to information and expertise, whilekeeping their hands and field of view free for work. RealWear is field proven with world-class customers,including Shell, Goodyear, Mars, Colgate-Palmolive, and BMW, who use it to improve workplace safety whiledelivering unprecedented ROI.
