Beumer Customer Support technicians look over the customer's service technician's shoulder virtually and solve the problem together with him. This digital solution reduces time-consuming journeys and high additional costs.

"With the Beumer Smart Glasses, our customers can get in touch with our service experts live anywhere and at any time," promises Christopher Kirsch, team leader of BG.evolution. With this spin-off from the university in Dortmund, the Beumer Group is bringing digital innovations into the company from outside. What does that mean? "With the support of start-ups, we take on a customer problem and develop so-called 'minimum viable products'. These are minimally equipped prototypes whose market potential and customer acceptance we put through their paces," explains Kirsch. This allows the Beumer Group to decide relatively quickly whether a new technology makes sense and then develop a finished product - such as the Beumer Smart Glasses.

This digital solution was brought to market maturity by the employees in Dortmund together with their colleagues from Beumer Customer Support and Research and Development in Beckum. "From October 2018 to January 2019, long-term tests were carried out at various customers, including live trials with a long-standing customer from the building materials industry. We were able to successfully complete this phase," reports Kirsch. The user has been using a Beumer paletpac high-performance palletizer and a high-performance packaging system from the Beumer stretch hood series for years.

If there is a problem in the operating process, production bottlenecks can quickly occur. In the worst-case scenario, this can lead to delays in day-to-day operations. "If a machine suddenly breaks down, the problem must be rectified as quickly as possible," says Kirsch. This is the only way for the user to save time and money. If the operator is not in a position to do this themselves, the Beumer Group sends its local technicians worldwide to prevent longer downtimes. In addition to the service technicians, the customer support hotline, which is available around the clock every day of the year, also offers competent telephone support for troubleshooting. However, it is often not trivial to describe a sometimes complex problem quickly and clearly over the phone. So what if the customer had the option of having a technician take a look at it at any time? This is possible with the Beumer Smart Glasses.

The employee at the machine puts on the glasses and starts the Beumer Support App via voice command. He transmits a service number and a pin code to the hotline, and the connection with image and sound is established. The same image is transmitted to the Beumer technician. This allows him to give instructions directly and display all information in the field of vision. The employee has both hands free to follow the expert's instructions and carry out the necessary actions. This allows faults to be resolved - at any time. "Language barriers or a lack of specialist knowledge are no longer relevant when it comes to troubleshooting," explains Kirsch. "We can also better validate with the operator why the fault occurred in the first place based on the recorded images."

As part of the comprehensive Beumer Customer Support, users book the Beumer Smart Glasses as an extension to the hotline on the basis of a monthly or annual agreement. The Beumer Group is currently developing further digital products together with BG.evolution under the umbrella of "Smart Solutions".