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Though we spend ample time examining consumer-based XR endpoints, greater near-term impact is seen in the enterprise. This includes brands that use AR to promote products in greater dimension (B2B2C) and industrial enterprises that streamline their own operations (B2B).
Those industrial endpoints include visual support in areas like assembly and maintenance. The idea is that AR’s line-of-sight orientation can guide front-line workers. Compared to the “mental mapping” they must do with 2D instructions, visual support makes them more effective.
And with VR, employee training and onboarding can be elevated through immersive sequences that boost experiential learning and memory recall. It also scales, given that far-flung employees can get the same quality training, versus costly travel for senior training staff.
Altogether, there are micro and macro benefits to enterprise XR. The above micro efficiencies add up to worthwhile bottom-line impact when deployed at scale. Macro benefits include lessening job strain and closing the “skills gap,” which can preserve institutional knowledge.
But how is this materializing today, and who’s realizing enterprise XR benefits? Our ongoing case studies series tackles these questions. We pick things up in this installment with a look at GE Aerospace’s adoption and integration of a new immersive training program.
Long & Onerous
Just like any other company and industrial sector, GE Aerospace faces challenges in finding the best systems to deploy its people to execute their roles and tasks. As always, this is a game of logistics and positioning resources in the most operationally sound and optimized ways.
More specifically, one way this broader challenge manifests for GE Aerospace is in the maintenance of its complex and finely tuned equipment. We’re talking everything from airplane engines to satellite parts. These are not only complex in their assembly but varied in their breadth.
This combination of complexity and variety presents logistical challenges for GE to deploy the right specialists to service equipment – and to do so at a geographic scope that matches the company’s own global footprint. As always, speed + cost containment is the name of the game.
However, some of GE Aerospace’s legacy systems were counterproductive to those goals. For example, training new technicians was a long and onerous process. Among other things, it involved a 600-page service manual with over 1,000 process steps and 200 components.
To streamline and modernize these training processes, GE Aerospace adopted TeamViewer’s Frontline Upskill to incorporate digital twins and AR-based training systems. TeamViewer’s no-code editor let GE build digital twins of aircraft engines that could serve as 3D training materials.
Recruit & Retain
And the results? Training sessions included a more dimensional understanding of the material, which in turn boosted memory recall. Beyond effectiveness, the need for speed was attained with a 20-to-40 percent reduction in training time, meaning faster deployment of new technicians.
GE also reports second-order effects, such as recruiting and retaining top talent. In other words, technicians and engineers have new standards for ease-of-use and digital interactivity, picked up from their personal use of technology. In that light, immersive training meets the moment.
After achieving these ends, GE Aerospace doubled down on AR and continues to deploy it beyond training, including functions like product lifecycle management, and quality assurance. The latter has additional ROI amplification in detecting issues and avoiding costly downstream errors.
Altogether, GE’s deployment serves as a best practices case in industrial AR. And the success factors go beyond AR. Related functions have to be well-integrated, including digital twins that flow into immersive environments. The more those assets are synced, the better AR can do its job.
We’ll pause there and pick things up in the next case study with more enterprise XR best practices and tactical takeaways…
Header image credit: Leonel Fernandez on Unsplash