TeamViewer helps EnviroFalk ensure its clients have pure water at all times

Industry: Manufacturing & Agriculture

Use case: Remote Support

The results speak for themselves

Faster on-site support from technicians
Less production downtime for the customer
Totally hands-free troubleshooting
Fewer mistakes and faster transfer of know-how
Seamless documentation of service calls
Business travel savings & lower CO2 emissions
Compliance with IT security standards

Background

From healthcare and medical technology to the food sector, from the auto industry to energy supply – pure water is needed everywhere. Often this is not commercial tap water, but instead process, pure and ultrapure water that is produced in special water treatment plants using sophisticated technical procedures specific to the future application.

For more than 30 years, EnviroFalk has been one of the most in-demand specialists when it comes to designing these water treatment systems. Systems for process water, as well as for pure and ultrapure water, are designed specifically for each client, from the housing down to the piping layout, control cabinet and automation technology.

Challenges

The company sets high standards for the quality and long service life of its water treatment systems. Just in Germany alone, a team of over 50 highly trained service technicians is on call to ensure that clients experience no unnecessary downtime.

However, when it comes to more demanding problems, experts from head office often have to travel in order to deal with complex issues on site. Which sometimes means clients experience some downtime in their production. Added to this are the costs and time involved with experts being out of the office.

Since no two systems are the same, and each individual system has its own particular requirements, technicians also need to be specially trained in order to maintain those systems and troubleshoot problems. Such experts are actually few and far between these days – a problem that will only get worse considering the global shortage of skilled labor.

EnviroFALK technician setting up Frontline user interface

Solution

After studying the market, the team looking after digitalization at EnviroFalk concluded that a solution leveraging augmented reality (AR) would be the best way to be able to react even faster and more accurately in terms of service and field support. They settled on Frontline, TeamViewer's AR platform designed for the enterprise sector, and in particular on the xAssist remote assistance solution.

Within a few weeks, EnviroFalk issued smart glasses to its entire team of service technicians, with Frontline installed on them, and trained the staff in how to use it. The software means that service technicians on site can now quickly get skilled support from experts back at head office.

If a service technician needs on-site support from head office, they can now make a video call using the smart glasses and TeamViewer Frontline. Experts connected remotely can view the customer’s system directly via the built-in camera in the smart glasses, and can work with the service technician on solving the problem.

Peter Leyendecker CEO, EnviroFALK

“We have been on the lookout for a digital solution for field technicians, one that would enable us to deliver our know-how to the client on site even faster.”

Benefits

The expert can remotely draw virtual arrows or markings onto the display in the smart glasses, to point out to the on-site technician which particular button to press or specific component to check, for example. The technician's hands are completely free and he can follow the expert's instructions directly 1:1. The built-in chat function helps in noisy work environments or with information that is easier to process visually, such as serial numbers.

Thanks to this new digital support system, EnviroFalk has also been able to reduce technician error rate significantly.

IT security also played a major role in the decision to use TeamViewer Frontline. The system works using secure encryption and so fully meets the demanding security requirements of EnviroFalk and its clients - in the pharmaceutical sector, for instance. Relying on a system of load-balanced WebRTC installations distributed across the globe, xAssist can offer the finest possible quality and security to all users, regardless of location.

Last but not least, the company was also able to achieve significant savings on business travel. By digitizing remote support, it can be provided directly online, which often means experts don’t have to travel out from head office to see the client. The result was that EnviroFalk could deliver support not only more rapidly and more efficiently, but also more sustainably.

Peter Leyendecker CEO, EnviroFALK

“Thanks to positive experience with this system, we are looking for other areas of application to further expand our digital services.”

EnviroFALK technician performs AR-supported inspection

About EnviroFALK

EnviroFALK, manufacturers of water treatment systems, has been responding to the demand for treated water used in complex production and cleaning processes for more than 30 years. Under the watchword of using water intelligently, each individual water treatment system is designed to match the scope of application exactly.

After all, in industrial applications, hospitals and laboratories, water treatment is about more than just water quality. Reliable technology for total production security, environmentally friendly design concepts that reduce water consumption, energy and operating costs. Besides this, EnviroFALK customers benefit from a comprehensive range of services.

EnviroFALK is part of the EnviroWater Group, a network of companies with experts in sustainable water treatment and processing.