Organisational Impact of the Adoption of AR at Boeing

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 the next big thing?”

Market Development

“The Market Development team brings their expertise to build global-growth strategies through the development of nontraditional partnerships. Market Development introduces new capabilities to current markets, and current capabilities to new markets, like no one else can.”

Disruptive Horizons

“The Disruptive Horizons team identifies alternative approaches to traditional business opportunities, working across technologies and business models to develop concepts that will change the future. By hosting internal and external accelerator and incubator programs, as well as leveraging Boeing’s research and technology resources, Disruptive Horizons brings over a century of business insights to launch disruptive markets and businesses.”

Upskill is a Washington, D.C. based computer software company. Founded in 2010, the company has provided “wearable technology to connect hands-on workers to the information, equipment, processes and people that need to do their jobs with greater efficiency and less errors.” With its most notable software platform, Skylight, Upskill has amassed the support of the world’s greatest companies such as GE, Rio Tinto, Jabil, Merck, Shell, Johnson & Johnson and more recently, Boeing.  

Upskill has been hailed among the best workplaces locally and nationally in the United States. This can be attributed to the company’s mission and adopted culture. Co-founder and CEO Brian Ballard often says, “Our mission ― which is to, ‘elevate the impact of people in today’s modern industrial workplace’ ― is what drives us, but it is our people and our culture that ultimately contribute to our success.”

Teamwork is put on a pedestal at Upskill and the company has created an environment that allows everyone to freely express their ideas. From the very beginning employees are provided with a flexible environment and rich benefits, this has fostered amazing innovations that made Upskill the company it is today.  

Upskill’s company values clearly align with Boeing’s intention to explore disruptive innovations. The collaboration between the two companies started in early 2015, before the launch of Boeing HorizonX. It started when Boeing released a competitive Request For Proposal (RFP) to the market describing a pain point in their manufacturing process. Ultimately, Upskill won the competitive bid and started working. Boeing’s venture investment into the software company was made official after the launch of the subsidiary.

“Boeing is not aiming to profit from the ventures directly but instead to access technology used in autonomous vehicles, machine learning, additive manufacturing and wearable devices, said Steve Nordlund, a Boeing vice president who heads HorizonX.”

References

Boeing. (2020). Boeing: HorizonX. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from http://www.boeing.com/company/key-orgs/horizon-x/

Upskill. (2020). Company - Upskill. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from https://upskill.io/company/ 

Martin, J. (2020). Upskill is Recognized As One of Washington DC's Best Workplaces. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from https://upskill.io/resources/blog/upskill-is-a-great-workplace/ 

Scott, A. (2020). Boeing forms venture group, invests in two tech startups. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-venture-idUSKBN1772BE 

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

Ballard, B. (2020). Smart glasses transform aircraft production. Retrieved 23 September 2020, from http://magazine.aerospacemanufacturinganddesign.com/article/january-february-2017/smart-glasses-transform-aircraft-production.aspx