UCL School of Management is delighted to welcome Enno Siemsen, Wisconsin university, to host a research seminar discussing; It takes two to troubleshoot: Technician-expert teams and augmented reality in repair operations.

Abstract:

Technological advances and the rise of remote work have enabled new models for repair operations in which local technicians collaborate with remote experts via augmented reality (AR). We study how the communication medium (in-person, AR, audio-only) and team formation (dedicated vs. random partner assignment) interact with task complexity (simple vs. complex repairs) to shape the performance of repair teams. In a controlled laboratory experiment with 295 participants on circuit-board diagnostics and repair, augmented reality significantly outperforms audio-only communication but still falls short of in-person collaboration.

However, the in-person advantage depends critically on matching assignment strategy to task type. For simple tasks, dedicated in-person pairs excel, whereas for complex tasks, exposure to varied partners (random assignment) improves performance. These assignment effects vanish under AR: performance is statistically indistinguishable between dedicated and random teams. The operational implication is that AR allows a scalable “call-center” model with random matching, pooling expert capacity without sacrificing problemsolving effectiveness. In-person setups require context-specific pairing to realize their full potential.

Key words : behavioural operations; team formation; fluid teams; repair operations; augmented reality