Automated material handling equipment is crucial to swift, efficient operations at warehouses and other logistics sites, but when the technology breaks down, things can quickly go south. Busy facilities don’t have time to wait for a visit from the manufacturer’s maintenance team or the information technology (IT) staff.
That need for speedy support led Konecranes, a Finnish manufacturer of cranes and hoists, to launch an offline chatbot for instant troubleshooting support. The company’s new “WMS (Warehouse Management System) Chatbot” is a digital assistant designed to support operators with real-time troubleshooting and task guidance. And it’s designed to work just fine even if the user’s internet connection is down, since it runs offline—on the customer’s own servers.
The chatbot is pre-trained on Konecranes’ servers using customer-specific documents such as equipment manuals, electrical drawings, and service history and is then securely transferred to the customer’s offline systems. As a result, operators have immediate access to relevant service documentation, historical maintenance data, and step-by-step instructions for resolving common issues. And with a customizable knowledge base, the chatbot can adapt to specific customer workflows and industry needs, and even support multilingual use for diverse operational teams.
“The chatbot enhances warehouse operations by acting as an always-available expert,” Lukas Keusch, chief engineer, material handling engineering at Konecranes, said in a release. “This immediate access to information reduces downtime, accelerates task completion, and encourages the team to resolve issues independently and efficiently.”
