Have you ever experienced that it can take some time before your production line gets the right service? Hopefully not, and with remote service assistance, the risk of experiencing downtime in production decreases even more. In this blog article, we describe how Norden Machinery uses remote service assistance to deliver quick and cost-effective service to the customers.

Norden Machinery – a dedicated tube filling partner

Norden Machinery is FlexLink’s sister company and leading supplier of high-performance tube filling systems. Since the delivery of the first tube filling machine in 1934, Norden Machinery has focused exclusively on developing tube filling systems and has introduced many innovations along the way. The products can be found in segments such as cosmetics, pharma, toothpaste, food as well as the industrial sector. The company offers after-sales support to over 1400 customers around the world, which requires a well-developed and effective service network.

Augmented reality allows you to communicate with sound and image

Remote service assistance is a tool that enables us to assist our customers in a fast and efficient way. The remote service assistance-tool that Norden Machinery uses is an augmented reality application. It allows us to communicate with the help of both sound and image; and can be used on a mobile phone, tablet or through virtual reality glasses. The application allows our customer’s technician to live-stream a video of the problem on the production line while at the same time communicating with the service department at Norden Machinery. Depending on the problem, Norden Machinery decides if it is possible to solve it with the help of the application or if a service engineer needs to visit the production site. This decision can be made more quickly and accurately through the application compared to, for example, an assessment through an e-mail. The application can help to analyze all types of problems, such as mechanical problems, electrical problems or programming problems.

This is also an excellent tool for the service engineers at Norden Machinery. The competencies differ between different countries and departments. Some service engineers might not have the specific expertise that is required to perform every job. However, by using remote service assistance, they can be assisted by their colleagues that have the right knowledge. This enables the service engineer to solve almost every problem that might occur at the customer’s production site. Thus, instead of only relying on one service engineer’s knowledge, the application makes it possible to bring the knowledge of the whole company to the customer.

Service engineers are able to virtually visit the production site in minutes

Before Norden Machinery started using remote service assistance, we first and foremost tried to assist the customers over the phone or e-mail. If the problem could not be solved over the phone, a service engineer was sent to the site. However, depending on where in the world the customer was located, this could be a time-consuming process. With remote service assistance, Norden Machinery is able to be virtually present on the site within minutes, which enables our service department to see what the customer sees, talk to the customer and conduct a first analysis and troubleshooting. Hopefully, the application helps the customer’s technician to solve the problem straight away. If not, our service department can find out as much information about the problem as possible in order to know what needs to be done and what type of resource that physically needs to be sent to the site. Thus, it can work both as a complement to the customer’s in-house service, as well as an introduction and preparatory work when planning a service visit by one of our service engineers.

Remote service assistance helps the customer save both time and money

Remote service assistance bring great value to the production owners as it helps minimize production stops as well as shorten the response time to solve a problem. Also, the application help reduce costs for the customers. When a service engineer visits a production site to investigate a problem it can lead to high costs that include, for example, transportation costs, working hours and so on. When using remote service assistance, the only cost is the time the service engineer is connected to the application. Thus, the customers get more value for their money. Another advantage is that the service sessions can be recorded. If it is likely that the same problem will show up again, it is possible for the customer to go back to the recorded session and try to solve the problem on their own. The recorded sessions can also be used for educational purposes so the technicians on site can be trained in how to solve different problems.

Planned service gets the production up and running as fast as possible

To sum it up, remote service assistance helps Norden Machinery define what the customers’ problems are and determine what is required in order to solve the problems. And, if the customer’s technician is unable to solve a problem by using the application, it is easier for our service department to know what resource we need to send. This helps to plan the service more carefully, making sure that the right people are at the right place in order to help the customers get their production going again as soon as possible.

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog article about remote service assistance and how it can help increase the efficiency in the manufacturing industry. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Also, visit Norden Machinery’s website and FlexLink’s website for more information about our companies and what we offer.