When he notices that he has no camera avail­able for our online appoint­ment, Tobias Ego starts to laugh. Because cameras is what he dealt with inten­sively over the last six months in his func­tion as head of the “Remote FAT“ project. Among other things – because if you intend to digi­tize the Factory Accep­tance Test (FAT), then many aspects have to be consid­ered. Tobias Ego shares with us what exactly this involves. He has imple­mented this project together with Dominik Dörr, Chris­tian Merk, Siegfried Hermann, Stefan Schwarz, Werner Blersch, and Cris­tian Reiter, and presented the result to the Exec­u­tive Board in July 2021.

I could imagine that we will have a kind of blend of classic and Remote FAT in the future.

Tobias Ego, Head of Assembly Synchro­ni­sa­tion

“The topic of Remote FATs was already in the air before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the customers simply weren’t too thrilled about remote factory accep­tance tests. They were used to coming to us, to accepting machines on site and to maybe eat our Swabian pret­zels“, Ego says. During the massive trav­el­ling restric­tions due to the pandemic, the situ­a­tion changed overnight. When a FAT with a Brazilian customer was immi­nent, cameras were quickly bought and the FAT was carried out remotely. This, however, was not really a perma­nent solu­tion. So Tobias Ego and his team embarked on turning the emer­gency solu­tion of the remote FAT into a valid option.

Not compli­cated is key

To put Remote FATs on a profes­sional basis, the colleagues, among them also project leaders with expe­ri­ence in remote tech­nology, got an overview of how other compa­nies proceed and how for example the Group company Koch or the ExU partner Fette are equipped. They checked whether data goggles would make sense and inspected how the machine surround­ings would have to be illu­mi­nated, because: “You can have excel­lent cameras – but if the sun is blinding you, they won’t help you a bit”, states Tobias Ego.

On top of this, the team compared different systems and also looked at what an external film recording provider had to offer. “They came to us with a 7.5-ton truck. What we need is some­thing uncom­pli­cated, and with as little cabling as possible. Our focus was rather on mobile cameras, because with them we can also walk along extended lines without cables and without prob­lems so that we can demon­strate the lines to our customers”, Ego explains.

The team devel­oped a solu­tion: Though it is on rollers, too, it is clearly more compact: a cabinet, equipped with three iPads, one iPhone, a Gigacube to ensure wire­less connec­tivity, a note­book, four portable chargers, three head­sets, three tripods, one gimbal which ensures stability for smart­phones, a charging station, and acces­sories. This way, the Factory Accep­tance Test works almost like a normal Teams meeting – the only differ­ence being that the customers see machines instead of faces.

Customers are convinced

Uhlmann has purchased four systems of this kind, 20 Remote FATs have been carried out so far. And the customer feed­back speaks for itself: “A huge ‘Thank you‘ to you and the whole team at Uhlmann for the absolutely smooth orga­ni­za­tion on site“, was for example what one customer wrote to Tobias Ego. Praise that the project leader likes to pass on: “We wouldn’t have succeeded without the very good coop­er­a­tion within the team.“

Despite the fact that the Remote FAT works out so well, Ego thinks that most customers want to continue to visit Uhlmann for a tradi­tional type of FAT. Some project leaders would even prefer that. Because it is their task to moderate the whole Remote FAT, which some­times takes several hours. ”That is not to be under­es­ti­mated, without any breaks“, Ego states. But he is convinced that it is vital for Uhlmann to have both options ready – the tradi­tional and the remote type of FATs: “I could imagine that we will have a kind of blend in the future, so that not the whole team comes here but that a part of them for example partic­i­pates from China.” Because less trav­el­ling is good for the budget – and for the climate.

Each end device is a partic­i­pant in the Microsoft Teams meeting.

A gimbal ensures stable images.

Every detail can be shown to customers with the iPhone.

Customers see the entire line and details simul­ta­ne­ously.

The manage­ment is also convinced by the Remote FAT made by Uhlmann.