Design Interactive (DI), an Orlando based firm, is proud to announce that Penske Truck Leasing has chosen their XRMentor™ software to train their technicians. XRMentor™ is an instructor-led and self-guided training platform enhanced by augmented reality enables Penske experts to live stream training to remote technicians at scale.
DI is proud to work an innovative firm like Penske Truck Leasing who has a history of investing in emerging technologies to benefit their associates and was quick to see the value in DI’s XRMentor™.
“Penske is proud to be at the forefront of industry innovation by offering this cutting-edge training to our associates,” stated Holly Gerke, Penske vice president of technical training and development. “The virtual nature of the program allows our technical trainers to reach a larger number of technicians in the field quicker and boost the consistency and scalability of technician training.”
While the planning and implementation of this program were in play prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic’s arrival certainly accelerated the timetable. Penske, like other firms, were seeking solutions that enabled their expert trainers to continue to train remote technicians cost effectively while access to facilities was limited.
“The pandemic required firms to evaluate how they deliver training. Firms still want to provide live, hands on training, but it is more difficult to train in person now. So Penske used XRMentor™ to flip the script”, according to Matt Johnston, DI’s Director of Commercial Solutions. “They put the augmented reality headset on a single expert instructor and used it to livestream hands on training to remote technicians. It is a concept of one to many.”
Ernie Luzania is a Penske technical training manager based in Denver who has trained all the program participants to date.
“No one in the industry has used this technology the way we are using it in the service department today,” he explained. “The technicians really get the feeling that the training is tailored to them. Using this program, we can achieve a more consistent repair coast-to-coast.”
It is common for firms to assume they need to purchase a headset for each technician to achieve the consistency Penske sought. But such an approach requires significant capital. XRMentor™’s instructor led feature ClassroomXR™ however, lowers the barrier to entry and as such, has received significant interest.
“With ClassroomXR™ they purchase 1 headset and dedicate one expert, yet impact all technicians, of different experience levels in very short period of time” Johnston noted. “As the firm matures in their use of the technology, they can make further investments and as partners, we are with them every step of the way”.
XRMentor™’s feature set was designed so that firms could logically, and cost effectively mature their use of the technology for training. The features allow a firm to support the See One, Do One, Teach One method of training and include:
• ClassroomXR™: Instructor led training that allows a remote technician to see the trainer’s first-person view of the skills being taught.
• Self-Guided Procedures: Step by step instruction on the Microsoft HoloLens 2 or mobile device that lets a technician practice or even execute a repair.
• Remote Video Collaboration: One on one video sharing where a trainer can view trainee performance or an expert can help a technician troubleshoot in real time.
Since XRMentor™ is available phones and tablets, firms who have invested in mobile devices for technicians, or have a bring your own device policy, continue to benefit from this lower cost of entry.
“Once a firm sees success with ClassroomXR™ they begin to use the mobile app to distribute content”, Johnston explained. “There is no further hardware investment required to continue to get value from the other features of XRMentor™”.
DI has plans to continue to improve ClassroomXR™ and become hardware agnostic. But the expansion will be done with the input of customers, and a direct focus on their needs.
“We are in lockstep with customers like Penske. They are partners and their input is extremely important to our product roadmap” according to Teddy Bixby, Product Manager for XRmentor™ at DI. “Yes, we are selling software but we are building relationships that we hope continue for a long time. With emerging technology like AR, that is the best way to do it and we appreciate that Penske believes in this as well”.
Please click here if you are interested in learning more about XRMentor™.
