LeMans Adopts Smart Glasses with Remote Assist for an On-Site Expert Experience

LeMans Corporation, the world’s largest distributor of aftermarket products and accessories in the powersports industry, used E2 Vision smart glasses with Remote Assist to keep inventory audits and equipment maintenance going when experts could not travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Challenge: Inventory Audits with No Auditor Present

Before the pandemic, auditors travelled to each LeMans facility to observe cycle counts. They chose the part numbers, and warehouse staff counted those locations while the auditors watched.

“Typically, we had three auditors come into the building,” says Gary McManus, LeMans Director of Operations for Warehousing. “We would pair up those three auditors with our warehouse staff. The auditors would provide us with a list of part numbers they wanted to see cycle counted and we would proceed to count those individual areas.”

Many counts had to be done high in the racking, which made safety a constant concern.

“Sometimes the counting would take place on the floor, but it’s just as likely we’d have to hike the auditor up 20 feet in the air with an order picker,” says McManus. “We’d have to belt the auditor up and put him on a product picker, move him to the right location, then hoist him up so he can monitor the counting of those items.”

Equipment maintenance worked the same way, with one technician travelling from facility to facility. Travel restrictions and social distancing made both impossible, so LeMans turned to E2 Solutions.

The Solution: E2 Vision Augmented Reality Glasses

E2 provided LeMans with several pairs of E2 Vision smart glasses with Remote Assist. Warehouse employees sent live, hands-free video to LeMans headquarters, where auditors watched the counts from their own offices.

“The device itself is quite simple,” says E2 Solutions CEO Erik Easton. “You wear the device like a pair of glasses. One side of the frame is the technology with a viewfinder, the other side is the battery. The viewfinder is positioned in front of the user’s eye. What the user sees is very similar to your smart phone, only the best part is your hands are free! … On the receiving end, the subject matter expert (SME) can annotate using an arrow or virtual pen to educate or instruct. If they’re looking at a motor, the expert can circle the wire and say, ‘grab that one,’ then virtually watch the user grab it, and walk them through making adjustments by using audio and visuals. It’s basically like the SME is right there looking over their shoulder, watching what they’re doing, guiding them through the process.”

Travel and Safety

“I can safely say that the glasses have already paid for themselves,” said McManus. “The expense of the glasses is insignificant compared to travel cost and wasted time. And we no longer deal with the additional safety risk of hoisting auditors 20 feet in the air. Now they’re front and center with the Remote Assist feature.”

“The glasses are so stinkin’ easy to operate,” says McManus. “You just put them on your face and turn them on. The training was more for the individual on the receiving end. I was going to create a sheet of standard operating procedures but decided not to bother with it. They’re that easy to use.”

The Result

The travel and time savings were immediate, and LeMans found uses well beyond audits. Engineers can assess a problem and walk a local technician through a repair from hundreds of miles away.

“I think we’re just scratching the surface of what we can do with these glasses,” says McManus. “We can use them for any type of inspection period, if we have a problem with a vendor shipment, if we have an HVAC type of scenario, a networking issue… whoever the expert is, they don’t have to go on-site anymore.”

“The whole thing is about speed,” says McManus. “If I’m down, I’m losing money immediately. When a control panel goes down, the loss number is big and has a lot of zeroes after it. The quicker we can get back up, the better we’re going to be. And now, instead of somebody having to hop on a plane to go out and resolve the issue, we’re able to troubleshoot issues through the glasses. Really the savings are ongoing with the versatility of the Smart Glasses and Remote Assist.”

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