Glartek, founded in 2017, is a leader in Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for the Manufacturing and Asset Intensive Industries. Glartek’s mission is to increase the efficiency and safety of operational processes. Their software solutions combine the AR and Internet of Things domains to bring visibility, optimization, and reassurance to field operations. Glartek has offices in Lisbon and Leiria, Portugal, and an exceptionally large customers such as EDP and Renault, and has raised over €1.5M in venture capital.
Glartek activities are focused on improving both efficiency and safety of industrial processes. The company’s clients achieve this by ensuring that they have an augmented and connected frontline team, as well as a visual remote assistance tool that allows anyone to execute any task with the remote support of a specialist.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
GLARTEK: Glartek’s main activity areas focus on: Digital Processes, Augmented Reality, IoT, and Visual Remote Assistance to guarantee more connected and augmented workers.
Our products found their sweet spot in the industrial area, mainly in manufacturing industries, asset-intensive, and field services. These three areas have had real advantages and results with the implementation of augmented and connected workers, and visual remote assistance tools. For example, with the implementation of both technologies, our clients have seen their production increased by 3%, teams have been reduced by 25%, and the error rate has been reduced to 0%.
These industries lack digital tools to improve the performance of their workers, safety, and efficiency. Glartek provides these new tools, simple to use, no-code needed, so they can easily be implemented in their businesses.
A connected worker becomes able to solve complex problems, execute maintenance procedures, install, and set up new equipment by himself. Additionally, with the support of a visual remote assistance tool, any frontline worker, or client, can have the support of experts to solve problems and ensure efficient resolutions at any time.
E.E: What’s the news for 2021 about new products?
GLARTEK: The pandemic times that we are living in have changed everyone’s mindset on how work should be organized, how workers should be prepared. In the Industry, the pandemic scenario has shown that some decisions have clearly failed. The main one was: Industrial companies have not been able to reduce the number of field workers when needed.
As an innovative company, always focused on finding the latest technologies to solve industrial needs, Glartek developed a long-term solution: a new tool that simplifies communication between specialists, frontline workers, and clients. Visual remote assistance is the answer: we launched our solution, GlarAssist.
The product allows any worker to be even more connected and augmented, being able to solve any problem, at any time. Whether the frontline worker or client, has a mobile device or needs to work with his hands-free, GlarAssist is the solution for any scenario.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
GLARTEK: In Glartek, we solve a necessity: Making frontline workers more efficient and safer. For that, we have two main products for different industries, even though they easily complement each other.
GlarVision: a solution that includes asset, team, and knowledge management, new mobility patterns, and IoT to optimize the daily work of industrial teams. The software ensures new mobility patterns so workers are more connected, including Augmented Reality as a plus, to help workers by being guided in real-time through execution, whether with their mobiles, tablets, or Microsoft Hololens.
GlarAssist: GlarAssist enables hands-free recordable video calling with Augmented Reality annotations, chat, freeze mode, sessions’ analytics, and much more. This innovative product helps experts provide real-time instructions to workers, or customers, to speed up and guarantee efficient problem resolutions, reducing travel costs and increasing the overall quality of service. The product is available online and is compatible with PCs, Smartphones, Tablets, Microsoft HoloLens 2, and leading Smart Glasses. GlarAssist is free of charge for personal usage and limited commercial usage.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
GLARTEK: Nowadays, there is a low number of fully digital companies. This is even more real in the industry. According to industrial specialists, in 5 years, 86% of industrial companies will only have started their digital transformation journey. This reality is even more noticeable in the industry due to operations’ secrecy, an old workforce that is not used to technology and represents an obstacle to new digital tools. There is no actual space for innovation. The proof is that most companies are still using paper-based processes and operations, which translates
into high costs, more time to execute tasks, more time for training, and bigger teams to ensure the know-how of every operation.
Therefore, the lack of digitalization of industrial companies represents a huge opportunity for market entry, and there is a low competition rate in the connected worker’s market. There are several players in the Visual Remote Assistance market, however, the tool is perceived as an easy first step for companies to start being more digital and increasing their productivity and efficiency. Innovative tools such as GlarVision and GlarAssist, which can be supported by augmented reality, make our customers’ lives simpler, with a payback in less than 6 months.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
GLARTEK: AR/VR and XR Extended Reality: Human Augmentation with these new technologies, and, real-time guidance with Augmented Reality navigation and execution points.
Connected processes and employees: Connected workers and processes ensure the best combination for a more efficient work environment.
Iot/IioT and IoE: IoT is one of the Industrial Revolution’s top innovations. Automotive leaders are betting on IoT, IIoT, and IoE, to ensure more data, for more informed decisions.
Cloud technology: It is becoming more and more important to access data in real-time and ensure its secure storage.
Visual Remote Assistance & Virtual Manuals: Augmented reality can allow technicians to give guidance to customers using on-screen directions.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
GLARTEK: Spatial AR: A recent Augmented Reality type that does not require any device such as mobile or HoloLens, SAR uses digital projectors to display the visual elements in the real world, and the user of the system interacts with a separate tool.
Mobile AR (ARCore and ARKit): These tools were introduced in 2017 to simplify the introduction of Mobile Augmented Reality in the market, for both producers, and users, that have seen their usability become more user friendly over the last few years.
HoloLens 2: HoloLens 2, the latest AR glasses by Microsoft are a hands-free option for different industries, field services, remote work, and many other industries. The visualization solution allows workers to access information in real-time and be guided through operations, improve training sessions, and much more.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2021?
GLARTEK: According to the market needs, customers must take their first step in becoming more digital. It is a mandatory thing to do to keep their competitiveness in this digital era. The estimation for this year reflects three needs our clients presented: reduce workers, augment their skills, and speed up process execution. As stated before, 2021 has sped up the need for the industrial market to digitize their activity, therefore, digital processes, workers connectivity are boosting the market to a new era in which customers are now open-minded for a new upgrade in their activity.