Industrial Telepresence
"Robotic Telepresence has enabled us to more than double
our remote inspection throughput."
-- David McCain, CPP Corp.
Industrial Telepresence Scenario
Benefits of Telepresence
Case Study
Industrial Telepresence Scenario
Your company just acquired your competitors and your team is starting the process of integrating the acquired entity. Your boss just put you in charge of all the assembly lines in your new factory that came through the acquisition. It is important to you to get to know all your plant managers well and acclimate them into the way your company likes to do things.
The problem is, the new factory is in Florida and you live in California. You already know that you'll spend a lot of time traveling to Florida but also know that travel is not a permanent solution.
But what else can you do?
This is where TiLR comes in.
Though you will still need to spend some time traveling back and forth to Florida, you deploy a TiLR at the remote factory. At any given time - and without help or permission from people in Florida - you can transport yourself instantly to the factory floor. You can monitor the action in the factory, stop by and talk to the people on the line, have conversation with people there as if you're there.
Other times, you'll see that your people there want to consult with you face to face. Where normally this would be delayed until you arrive there in person, now you just log to TiLR from your desk and have that face to face instantly.
This is the power of Robotic Telepresence.
To say it simply: with Robotic Telepresence you can be in two places at the same time.
Features and Benefits of Industrial Telepresence
- Mobility - provides the freedom to move about the remote location and not be tied to a specific "window".
- Live Video/Audio - instant face to face contact with the remote people, objects, and environment.
- Runtime - up to 8 hours of battery life allows you to be there without burdening anyone.
- Snapshots and Recording - document what interests you by taking pictures or recording the session as video.
Case Study
At the request of the company that is the basis of this study, we have changed the names of people and the company mentioned here. All other information is accurate and factual.
CCP is a grocery plastic bag producer that developed a unique bag dispenser which saves retailers 33% in wasted plastic bags. This innovation has enabled them to capture a 70% market share in the South West region - as well as significant gains in North East and North West territories. In order to maintain maximum production uptime CCP conducts routine machine inspections by in-house staff as well as monthly remote inspections by an outside maintenance company. Once a month the in-house maintenance manager takes still pictures of critical points of the machine which are then emailed to the remote company for inspections. Despite this multi-layered approach to maintenance, CPP was looking for ways to improve the process and further cut machine downtime.
According to David McCain, a 10% increase in machine uptime will lead to $2.2 million of cost savings and added capacity on an annual basis. We first spent a week visiting with CPP to understand their manufacturing processes and exact needs. We spoke to their maintenance staff as well as the remote inspection company and it was determined that we can improve the way the remote inspections happen by providing a more natural way for remote inspections to take place. A TiLR telepresence robot was installed on the CPP factory floor and the remote inspection company was provided with access to the robot. The company then proceeded to inspect CPP's machines using TiLR - now having the ability to drive to each critical point and having a live video feed of the machines. They would also record the video feed for further analysis - and would take snapshots of any critical part with the right angle and zoom features of TiLR. They were also able to talk live and face to face with the people on the factory floor and collaborate on what they were doing.
In just two inspections CPP and the remote inspection companies have been able to more than double their remote inspection throughputs - and even discovered a problem that was not covered by their normal inspections procedures. Remote inspections have gone from a isolated exercise to a collaborative one in conjunction with the in-house staff - which has lead to the in-house staff gaining more knowledge and experience in keeping machines online.
This is an ongoing study and a quantitative analysis will be coming soon.