Survey of Aerospace Manufacturing Executives Shows Where They Have Begun to Fasttrack Automation Technologies Like AR/VR

Sept. 16, 2020

Grid Raster Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based XR platforms that powers high-performance and scalable AR/VR/MR experiences on mobile devices for enterprises, announced results of an aerospace industry survey that illustrates the critical steps industry manufacturers are planning and taking to leverage more automation technology to deal with COVID-19 social distancing, staffing shortfalls and the need for overall efficiencies in production.

The online survey, commissioned in July by Grid Raster, which provides Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) for aerospace manufacturers, showed that 42 percent of respondents are implementing AR/VR technologies over the next 12 months, and 51 percent are beginning to research the potential for AR/VR to make future plans and implementations.

COVID-19 has had an impact on aerospace executives’ decisions to make these implementations. Twenty-eight percent of those polled said COVID-19 weighed heavily on their decision to fasttrack these plans and another 39 percent have already begun the process as a result of the pandemic.

Those aerospace companies that have made implementations are seeing a number of results. The majority of those polled said they are achieving between a 15 percent - 20 percent increase in efficiency, and a 5 percent - 10 percent increase in overall cost savings.

Aerospace companies are leveraging AR/VR technologies the most in AR-assisted workforce on production lines (83 percent); AR-assisted maintenance and customer visits (75 percent); employee training programs (53 percent); and AR-assisted design processes for aerospace engineers (30 percent).

The ability to leverage cloud technology is important to aerospace companies for AR/VR solutions. In fact, 51 percent of aerospace executives are concerned with the need to move their current AR/VR solutions to a cloud-based environment.

“Highly scalable automation technologies such as AR/VR are proven to be extremely effective for aerospace manufacturers because of the ability to significantly increase efficiencies, reduce costs and keep more workers safe,” said Rishi Ranjan, CEO of Grid Raster. “We’re finding that these milestones are achieved more rapidly when manufacturers ensure they have deployed AR/VR solutions in a cloud-based environment, which can provide greater functionality and scalability for projects.”