Being agile and innovative, Actini made the most of augmented reality and PTC's Vuforia® Chalk™ remote support solution to guarantee its customers proximity and a high level of service. This solution will now be used to develop new use cases.
An innovative French company with an international outlook
For more than 60 years, Actini has been a key player in the biotechnology and agri-food sectors thanks to its expertise in heat transfer technologies as well as a variety of other processes. In the food sector, the firm designs, manufactures, markets and installs pasteurisation and sterilisation equipment for treatment of liquid food products such as fruit purees and juices, milk and dairy products, vegetable extracts and egg products. In the biopharmaceutical sector, it designs, manufactures, markets and installs effluent decontamination units mainly for the vaccine industry and high security research laboratories.
As conducting 90% of its business in over 65 countries, the firm had to face the lockdown conditions imposed almost overnight by various governments around the world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. An alternative approach had to be found quickly, because qualified technicians needed to be on site to install Actini’s equipment and provide training in its use.
Maintaining Operational Efficiency
Every equipment manufactured by Actini to be sold to a customer undergoes two series of tests. Following completion of the equipment manufacturing process, the customer’s teams attend factory acceptance testing (FAT) to verify that the equipment meets their specifications prior to shipping. A second series of tests is then carried out at the customer’s premises, to validate receipt of the equipment and its connection to the site environment.
When travel came to a grinding halt because of Covid-19, Actini faced a major difficulty. The company was no longer able to send its technicians to customer sites, nor were customers able to send their representatives to the Évian facility for factory acceptance tests.
Since the technicians had to continue to provide preventive and curative maintenance at customers’ sites, a solution had to be found to replace their on-site presence.
Augmented Reality: from Alternative Solution to Competitive Edge
Augmented reality quickly emerged as the ideal solution. Vuforia Chalk appeared as an obvious solution for remote support. As being operational out-of-the-box, Actini was able to try and test it upstream. Other benefits included its compatibility with hands-free wearable devices.
In addition to providing effective customer support without sending technicians to far away destinations around the world, Vuforia Chalk delivers financial savings as well as substantial time savings. “Troubleshooting via Chalk gives a time saving of between 20% and 30% compared with a conventional video conference,” says Alexandre Baud.
The health crisis which could have had an adverse impact on Actini actually turned into a great opportunity. Thanks to Vuforia Chalk and augmented reality, the company was able to maintain high levels of service quality, gain in operational efficiency and responsiveness, and reduce travel costs.
The experience also revealed that AR offers a real competitive edge and unexpected benefits in terms of user experience and brand image. Actini is now aiming to develop new use cases to help their employees and customers benefit fully from this remote support technology.
