It took Wuhan, China 77 days to exit lockdown. Yet, as of yesterday, there were reports of new infections of COVID19 after weeks of the government declaring they had flattened the curve. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, is home to 11 million and is one of the most populous cities in Central China. It has long nurtured the manufacturing sector and of late, modern industrial changes too. Imagine a city like this going into a complete lockdown for two and a half months, and then again likely for a longer period of time if reports of a 'second wave'are confirmed. This is the new reality for almost every major city across the world. As South Korean President Moon Jae mentioned in a televised address that the world is fighting a prolonged war, and maintaining safety protocols is imperative even after resuming daily lives. South Korea reported 34 new infections, caused by an outbreak in a nightclub. 

It is time we accepted that this virus is here to stay for a long time and will likely have altered the way we do business, transact and interact socially, possibly forever. 

Meanwhile, cases in India are spiking exponentially across major cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai and New Delhi. Ever since the nation began moving out of the national lockdown from May 4th, almost every densely populated city has reported an increase in cases. Authorities continue to monitor the situation closely, but it is getting apparent that resumption of normalcy is a far cry even now. 

How Can Remote Assistance Is Altering Dynamics of Personnel-Heavy Industries 

One of the hardest hit sectors in India is manufacturing. According to UNIDO, 'manufacturing stands idle' currently except rice mills. Even before the lockdown, the auto sector was feeling the heat due to a stagnating economy and disruption in international supply chains. The situation has worsened since March 24, especially with the largescale displacement of migrant workers from industrial hubs. 

In the past few weeks, the virtual world has been abuzz with webinars and online sessions on a range of topics. Be it managing remote work, pivoting product offerings during COVID19, understanding the new challenges to cybersecurity in this 'new normal', there is plenty of knowledge being exchanged on collectively cracking a strategy for a new world. A concept worth exploring more aggressively is remote assistance through Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality. 

Remote assistance involves the deployment of tools and technologies to help resolve issues or perform tasks without being physically present at the site. A technician sitting in India could very well assist a manufacturer or supply chain vendor in Germany set up a device or correct a defect in a machine without moving from the comfort of his office. This is exactly what Bangalore-based startup BlinkIn did for Huber+Ranner, a Germany-based air handling unit (AHU) manufacturer and assembler, when they had to get some AHUs installed in Wuhan's field hospitals in February. The infection was at its peak and Wuhan had already shut off its borders. But the team of engineers in Bangalore along with another remote team in Germany were able to help engineers set up the AHUs from start to end, virtually. This was accomplished by using Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality, limiting the need for onsite service and enabling self-service. Through videos and photos, the two parties can clearly understand how the setup is progressing virtually and provide assistance per the requirement. As we brace ourselves for a world where international and national travel could drastically fall, systems such as these need to become more robust to ensure continuity in business processes. 

ITC Infotech published a blog about how they worked with a client in the insurance sector to supplement support and manage colleague experience. Saurabh Saket, GM of IT Services at ITC Infotech, in the blog, described how VPN utilisation rose 15% to 90% for 57,000 employees, and customer calls shot up by 300% in volume. With this exponential increase in volume, the insurance client was keen on establishing a remote support system that could continue well after the threat of COVID19 subsided. In just a week, the ITC Infotech tech team was able to build an offering that could provide remote work infrastructure, onboarded support team and provisioning access, enable knowledge transfer and support sessions through WebEx and MS Teams, set up a virtual war room for immediate next steps and resolution, enhance daily reporting metrics and consequent analysis. 

"In a pre-COVID era, a major portion of this plan would have been discussed onsite with the customer and probably taken 3-4 weeks from conception to deployment. With time of essence, the team went from idea to live production in 7 days."

Swiss conglomerate ABB too has enhanced its remote assistance offerings to shipping clients, as a result of ongoing travel restrictions. Through ABB Ability Collaborative Operations Centers located globally, local service engineers are helping shipping crews remotely. More than 1,000 ships are connected to the ABB Ability Collaborative Operations Centers. According to a release by the company, 'remote diagnostics of shipboard equipment has become a key feature of shipping over the last decade. Sensor-driven onboard monitoring software that fully integrates with analytics ashore plays a central role in facilitating this approach'. 

Huawei has long been providing a varied range of services under remote assistance since the pandemic began. Their telemedicine support tools are especially being used extensively across Asia Pacific nations like Thailand, China, the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia. These tools are used for AI-assisted diagnosis, live video streaming for medical personnel, remote collaboration and diagnosis and more. 

Remote Assistance For Desk Employees 

Most of us would have come across this fairly rudimentary software called TeamViewer installed on our office laptops and desktops. But this handy little software has been a saviour whenever our laptops experienced technical difficulties and our IT support couldn't physically troubleshoot. This is exactly what remote assistance is in essence, but augmented with advanced technologies for more precise support. This piece of technology could very well redefine the factory of the future. Wipro HOLMES is leveraging AI to eliminate the need for employees to contact IT support agents by providing them a suite of self-help modules and conversational assistants. In a blog, Varadharajan S, GM & Global Presales Head for Wipro HOLMES explained how the Remote Worker Solution utilises predictive automated self-heal and self-help to address issues like password resets, software installations, printer installations and browser issues. Additionally, it checks and remediates IT compliance of end user systems. This is supported by a HOLMES Cognitive Chat - a conversational virtual assistance tool through which FAQs and SOP-based search can be solved. Internal triaging is done through a Service Desk - thereby drastically reducing the load on the systems, enabling quick response and ensuring tickets don't get left unaddressed. 

Major Global Events Shift Processes For The Long Term 

History is testament to the fact that major global events have brought on a wave of changes, initially intended as short term measures and eventually becoming the norm for a longer period of time after. The Great Depression of the 1930s led to governments playing a definitive role in establishing checks and balances in financial systems and markets; the World Wars enhanced the manufacturing and industrial might of nations; cybersecurity and surveillance became more robust after 9/11 and the subprime crisis of 2009 led to the growth of an 'experience economy' and provided a fillip to offshore production to remain relevant. 

Following COVID19, a host of changes can be expected to stick around for the foreseeable future - the reliance and enhancement of remote work, online learning, video streaming and video-based communication. The larger systemic shifts will happen in automation as manufacturing will embrace digital transformation more rapidly; and data will truly become an indispensable asset. Deployment of industrial IoT, AI-based insights and analytics, deployment of machine learning & deep learning methodologies will increase.