Sodick Europe HoloLens Case Study

“Zenzero came in and showed us the product and its potential and immediately I could see that actually we had a requirement for this type of equipment. We can save time and money from not traveling to each country so it is very good solution for us.”

Peter Capp, CEO, Sodick Europe

Since 1976, Sodick Europe has manufactured over 60,000 EDM machines and over 45,000 Linear Motor Driven EDMs. Their machines are used for the production of dies, moulds and other various applications which cannot be produced by standard machining methods. 

Sodick’s mission statement is “Create, Implement and Overcome Difficulties.” This statement contains the company’s strong philosophy of “contributing to our customers’ manufacturing by creating new things, implementing them, and overcoming the difficulties involved in the process.” 

They had a specific requirement that their engineers work directly on their machines at their client’s workplace in order to action repairs. During covid this was not possible due to travel bans. It was critical to their business that their machines could be maintained.  

Zenzero introduced Microsoft HoloLens having seen its potential during our involvement in Ventilator Challenge UK. We knew that this solution could help Sodick with their challenges during covid in enabling engineers to see and speak to their clients while looking at the machine. It’s easy to use, voice enabled and has wide view.  

The Challenge:

  • Not being able to visit client’s sites 

  • Sodick EDM machines needing to be regularly maintained  

  • Client’s lacked skillset to repair machines 

  • Uncertainty due to covid for when sending engineers could resume  

The Solution:

  • Zenzero introduced a solution that integrated with Sodick’s existing Microsoft infrastructure that they were using 

  • A relatively low-cost solution to an expensive problem 

  • Found a number of uses for Microsoft HoloLens post-covid that has been implemented into their processes, using it for training and updates 

  • Enabled Sodick to keep a competitive advantage and offer excellent customers service 

The Outcome:

“We see it now as more a training aid so as we have new features on our machinery which would be probably every six months we're able to speak to each dealer individually or collectively which is another big point for us because each dealer has a varying level of technology within their company so we can tailor make the training course for that dealer using the equipment.”