AR Impact on the Wiring Assembly Process at 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 diagrams to do their work. They also used laptop, which helped, but had the same basic problem: constant look-away interruptions as workers got directions and cross-checked diagrams and schematics (Dixon, 2018). That makes this process caused exhaustion in employees and was time-consuming, in both production and inspection. 

Solution

Boeing technician identifies the correct wire number using Skylight

After more than two decades, the company had been looking for a hands-free system that use some sort of wearable computer to reduce production time and related errors. could apply the same technology with a much-advanced tool to ease this complex task by using Glass Enterprise Edition and Skylight enterprise software from Upskill (Fink, 2019). They began a pilot program, with Skylight replacing those laptops and phone books of paper. 

Quoted from a conversation between a journalist and Jason DeStories, a Manufacturing Research & Development at Boeing (Sacco, 2016):

"During the pilot, when a participant showed up for work, she'd first visit a lockbox to check out a Glass unit and then go to her computer to log-in adn authenticate the device on the network. For authentication, the tech would put on the smartglasses and scan a QR code generated by the system on her computer, which then pushed the ire harness app to the smartglasses. Next the tech would hear to her work station on the assembly floor, grab the next 'shop order', and then scan another QR code on the box of components, which provided necessary status updates or notes and told her thwere to get started.

The Skylight app supports touch gestures and voice commands, so a tech could, for example, pick up a box of components, and then begin the process by saying, 'OK Skylight. Start wire bundle. Scan order.' Next, she might say, 'OK Skylight. Local search. 0447,' to quickly launch an assemble roadmap for the wire No. 0447 on her smartglasses heads-up display.

If she came across a problem she couldn't solve on her own, she could stream her point-of-view video of the wire harness to an expert in another location for assistance. Or she could check to see if there was another assembly video already available for playback on the smartglass display.

When you truly sit in the pilot seat, from the technicians point of view, having a hands-free device where the information is just always in the upper right corner of your eye really starts to make sense" - Jason DeStories

 

 Results

With Skylight, Boeing was able to reduce the wiring production time by 25% and reduced error rates effectively to zero. Further more, the solution significantly increased employee achievement, better workstation ergonomics, and consequently, worker retention. According to Randall MacPherson, a Senior Manager of Boeing's Electrical Strategic Fabrication Center, "Wearable technology is helping us amplify the power of our workforce" ("Boeing Augmented Reality Secret: Skylight For Assembly | Upskill Boeing", n.d.). 

References

Barfield, W., & Caudell, T. (2001). Fundamentals Of Wearable Computers And Augmented Reality (pp. 447 - 467). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Boeing Augmented Reality Secret: Skylight For Assembly | Upskill Boeing. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from https://upskill.io/landing/upskill-and-boeing/

Dixon, D. (2018). How Brands Like Boeing Use Augmented Reality in Production. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from https://medium.com/@dixondaniel204/how-brands-like-boeing-use-augmented-reality-in-production-8d2c1b33133

Fink, C. (2019). How Boeing Uses Upskill Skylight AR To Boost Productivity. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2019/02/26/how-boeing-uses-upskill-skylight-ar-to-boost-productivity/#1a4babf56093

Sacco, A. (2016). Google Glass takes flight at Boeing. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from https://www.cio.com/article/3095132/google-glass-takes-flight-at-boeing.html