RealWear, the world’s leading provider of assisted reality solutions for frontline industrial workers, announced that Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv, based in Turkey, has selected and deployed RealWear’s rugged wearable devices across all of its 56 authorised service centres.
Prior to its countrywide enterprise wearable deployment, the process included hundreds of in-person trips, emails, shared photos and videos and over-the-phone collaboration with subject matter experts. With more than 240,000 customer vehicles on the road and the company’s commitment to high-quality service, the RealWear deployment will result in a wide-ranging positive impact from cost savings, carbon footprint reduction to efficiency and worker empowerment.
For Mercedes-Benz, speed is everything, including a timely response and resolution to its customers. Any issues that could not be resolved required technical support staff to schedule and physically visit the dealership, costing the firm around an expected $100k and 500 tons of carbon emissions per year.
Since initially deploying the technology, Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv anticipates a 25% jump in ROI for on-part training scenarios and up to an expected 80% performance increase in customer service centre technical problem resolution where expertise from HQ is required. Certain other processes, such as problematic warranty cases and insurance claims have also become far more efficient using RealWear’s devices.
“Technologies such as RealWear and Microsoft Teams further increase the service quality and speed of Mercedes-Benz, thus positively affecting our customer satisfaction.” said Celal Tuna, Technical Support Supervisor at Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv.
In Search of the Best Enterprise Wearable for Auto Workers
Mercedes Benz’s search for an enterprise wearable for its technicians began in May of 2020 but accelerated during travel-restrictions. The company wanted to safely maintain its high standard of customer support and resolution despite this challenge. Following conversations with Tofnatech, a gold partner and authorised RealWear reseller, it conducted a four-month pilot project in several of its customer service locations. After seeing initial success, Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv quickly scaled the RealWear devices throughout Turkey. Tofnatech developed a remote training program, and all service centre staff were trained on the new process.
The RealWear HMT-1 is a rugged voice-enabled heads-up display fully optimised with noise cancellation. Those were important features when the crew was near a busy motorway or construction site. The form factor and software frees a worker’s hands for the job task. The RealWear HMT-1 provides the ability for videos and pictures to be taken by the wearer and shared with an expert in real-time, enabling Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv’s customer services technical support department to conduct remote assistance to solve problems that require the additional support and technical experience of a remote team.
The rollout of HMT-1s has enabled Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv to connect experts to staff out in the field via live video calls using Microsoft Teams to settle any issues that dealers are not able to resolve. Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv’s after-sales engineering/support teams can communicate with the technician with ease and can monitor the environment through the technician’s field-of-view and convey real-time instructions.
Commenting on the deployment, Altug Karayel, Founder of Tofnatech stated: “With its proven performance in Mercedes-Benz pilots, the ability to use Microsoft Teams, with continuous support from Tofnatech, and the many global companies already endorsing the product, meant that a wide-scale rollout of RealWear’s device was an easy decision for Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv to make.”
“We’re delighted to continue to support the automotive industry as they pivot to electric, leveraging our assisted reality technology,” said John Arnold, Vice President of EMEA at RealWear. “Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv has reinvented the way in which it conducts vehicle repair and training in a move that highlights the digital transformation taking place in this industry.”
The introduction of assisted reality technology into the automotive space is part of the wider digital transformation process that is taking place, as witnessed by the adoption of technologies such as AI and augmented reality. With the automotive industry changing and shifting toward electric and semi-autonomous vehicles, RealWear is helping Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv stay ahead of the curve with its deployment of assisted reality wearables.
About RealWear
RealWear® is the world’s leading provider of assisted reality wearable solutions that engage, empower, and elevate the modern frontline industrial worker to perform work tasks more safely, and with increased efficiency and precision. RealWear gives these workers real-time access to information and expertise, while keeping their hands and field of view free for work. RealWear is field proven with world-class customers, including Shell, Goodyear, Mars, Colgate-Palmolive, and BMW, who use it to improve workplace safety while delivering unprecedented ROI.
RealWear is headquartered in Vancouver, Washington in the United States, with local offices in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, and Japan, along with a new customer experience center in Dubai. RealWear’s number one position was further strengthened with triple (3X) year-over-year growth in 2020. The company has shipped wearable devices to more than 5,000 unique enterprise customers worldwide in a range of industries, including Energy, Manufacturing, Food & Beverage, Automotive, and Telecommunications.
About Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv
In parallel with the new restructuring process of Daimler AG all over the world, as of 02.01.2020, Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv Ticaret ve Hizmetler A.?. started its activities in charge of the import and sale of Mercedes-Benz brand light commercial vehicles and all automobile brands under Mercedes-Benz Group AG in Turkey. These activities had been carried out by Mercedes-Benz Türk A.?. since 1967. Mercedes-Benz Türk A.?. continues its activities under the “Daimler Truck AG” company, which is now a separate legal entity following the partition, in charge of Truck and Bus groups.
Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv with its 56 authorized service centers and more than 4000 personnel across the country, carries out import, sales and after-sales service activities covering more than 240,000 vehicles.
As of 02.01.2020, the Global IT Solutions Center (Solution Delivery Center Turkey), which started its operations in Istanbul in 2013 with the positioning of Turkey as one of the information technology bases within the scope of the global IT strategy of Daimler AG, has also started operating under Mercedes-Benz Otomotiv legal entity. The Global IT Solutions Center provides 24/7 IT services to Mercedes-Benz Group AG operations in more than 40 countries around the world.
About Tofnatech
Tofnatech is a wearable digital transformation company offering wearable-first hardware & software solutions for the enterprise.
Tofnatech is the Gold Partner & Authorized Reseller-Professional Services of RealWear. Being one of the most active partners of RealWear, Tofnatech operates in more than 40 countries and serves multinational conglomerates including Ford, Shell, Mercedes, Petrofac, GE, Nestle, Pepsi and many more.
Headquartered in Istanbul, Tofnatech is the market leader in industrial wearables in Turkey.
Services that Tofnatech offers include feasibility studies, digital transformation journey strategy development, ROI calculations as well as custom project development for local enterprise process requirements for digital transformation with most recent technologies including artificial intelligence (predictive and prescriptive services), augmented & virtual reality, and AI implementations.
