ASMPT now offers Virtual Assist, an AI-based expert system that supports all onboarding, service, and maintenance activities in electronics production. The software-as-a-service, which can be operated through an Android/IOS app or a browser, is adaptive and collects practical experience from the service staff throughout the enterprise. Thanks to its natural language processing technology, users can ask spoken questions and get them answered based on the system's growing knowledge database.
"When you consider that the service staff generally spends up to 80% of their time clarifying problems and only 20% actually solving them, you realise very quickly that an expert system offers huge potential for making the maintenance of SMT lines more efficient," says Bernhard Fritz, head of Global Marketing at ASMPT SMT Solutions. "Since production interruptions are expensive, any troubleshooting must be done as quickly as possible. Virtual Assist helps as directly as if you were getting advice from experts who have solved exactly the same problem in the past."
Its flexibly scalable licensing model offers the solution in three expansion stages. The basic level always includes the documentation of the company's machines, but one of the system's strengths is the intelligent use of structured and unstructured data to supply clear results via tutorials, troubleshooting guides and Q&As. Users can upload any documentation to Virtual Assist and produce company-specific know-how collections for rapid troubleshooting or efficient training, including for third-party systems within the factory. If the user chooses expanded functions such as the scanning and identification of devices, it can function as a logbook and archive all service activities and problem resolutions that have been performed.
With the expert system on the smartphone, tablet and web browser, the time spent searching for information in connection with service activities can be lowered by up to 95%. It, therefore, decreases downtimes and production interruptions and raises productivity by up to 25%. As a learning companion for all service activities, the knowledge platform also counters the loss of know-how due to employee fluctuation by maintaining expert knowledge and practical experience, constantly expanding it, and making it available to all employees.
