Augmented Reality in Boeing

 An astounding 130 miles of wiring goes into every new Boeing 747-8 Freighter, tucked away overhead and underfoot from the cockpit to the wheel wells. For Boeing, the world's leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners, that translates to thousands of miles of wiring 𑁋 and ten thousand hours of work 𑁋 each year. This application of technology is dating back to 1990 when Boeing launched an industrial research and development project in Augmented Reality to guide the assembly of electrical wire bundles  (Barfield & Caudell, 2001) . However, David Mizell and Tom Caudell, Boeing researchers at that moment, did not find a significant productivity improvement, although they could prove that they could build a real bundle using the help of AR during the pilot assembly in 1997.  Adam Janin assembling a wire bundle using the AR system that carried in the wearable computer in 1995 Situation Before the AR technology is applied, Boeing workers used "phone books" full of diagra...

Augmented reality brings with it many benefits and applications, but also risk with regards to data management and information sharing, risks that need to be managed carefully. Opportunity: Boeing is a great example in showing the multiple applications of augmented reality within not only one industry, in this case aerospace, but also within one company. Boeing collaborates closely with the company Upskill, an industry leader in augmented reality software, to develop and improve "Skylight", a software package provided by upskill which offers seamless integration of hands-free data and communication within the assembly department of Boeing through the use of Google's "Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2" as shown below in an excerpt from an article written by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann for the Harvard Business Review: "AR is already redefining instruction, training, and coaching. These critical functions, which improve workforce productivity, ar...

After Boeing’s massive success as a manufacturer of airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment and missiles worldwide, the American multinational company launched the Boeing HorizonX in 2017. This Boeing subsidiary was built “to meet the challenge – to assess disruptive innovations and business strategies for Boeing, seek unique business opportunities for the company’s aerospace technology and make targeted investments in new ventures.” (Kanaglekar, 2019). Boeing HorizonX comprises three key teams, namely: global ventures, market development, and disruptive market strategies. Global Ventures “Our investment team focuses on identifying startups developing revolutionary concepts around the world. Bringing together a diverse background of Boeing knowledge and larger market experience, the Ventures team provides funding to chosen startups, connecting them with our global network of Boeing resources to get their ideas off the ground. Have a winning idea for th...

Paul Davies of Boeing presented a wing assembly study in collaboration with Iowa State University, proving differences in quality and time when the assembly is performed using 2d work instructions (PDF) versus Augmented Reality.  50 participants were divided into three groups to assemble part of a wing, requiring 50 steps to assembly nearly 30 different parts.  Variables: Desktop computer displaying work instruction in PDF file. The computer was immobile and sat in the corner of the room away from the assembly area Mobile tablet displaying work instruction in PDF file, which participants could carry around the assembly area Mobile tablet displaying Augmented Reality software showing work instructions as guided steps with graphical overlays Procedure: The participants assembled the wing twice. During the first attempt, observers measured first-time quality before disassembling the wing and having participants reassemble for comparison. In conclusion, the study shows a 90% impro...

Introduction to KA Technology and Engineering During the first week of Knowledge Area (KA) Tech and Engineering, each group was given the assignment to choose a specific technology and its application in a specific industry. The assignment is aiming that students could dive deeper into technology development and using their creativity to decide which part of the business or process activity the technology could apply. Students are expected to give a business analysis in terms of cost-benefit analysis and the impact in the PCOI (Process, Control, Organisation, and Information). Which technology to choose?  With a group of four students, numerous ideas were popped up during the discussion. We immediately surfing on the internet to gain more information about technology in the manufacturing industry.  There are some interesting technologies we found: Powered exoskeleton by Ekso Bionics Augmented Reality in Boeing and Deloitte Artificial Intelligence in Sherrit Technologies Cobot ...

 Augmented Reality (AR) could be a term used to identify a group of technologies that permits the view of the real-world environment to be "augmented" by computer-generated elements or objects. More specifically, AR describes a mediated reality, where the perception of the physical real-world environment is heightened by means of computing devices. Compared to virtual reality (VR), is a set of technologies that allow the user to interact with a computer in an exceedingly simulated environment (either a simulation of the real world or an imaginary world), where AR does not aim to interchange the real world with a simulated one and is consequently often classified as a Mixed Reality (MR) system. MR could be a mixture of reality and VR, incorporating both AR and augmented virtuality through immersive technology  (Bottani & Vignali, 2018). Over the last 50 years, augmented reality technology has reshaped the way people consume content in the real world. This technology was in...