News

We're on the brink of a wearable tech tipping point – but will the A&D industry embrace it?

Will wearable devices be the next widely adopted form of consumer technology? ‘Wearable tech’ was the talk of CES 2014, the global consumer electronics and consumer technology tradeshow in Las Vegas in January, and Gartner has predicted that the market will be worth $10 billion by 2016. The big question though is exactly what is the future of this consumer driven technology, and is there a place for it in the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry? Brendan Viggers Head of Product Management for the IFS A&D Center of Excellence, examines the potential role of this technology.

Once again, consumer technology marches on and into the corporate world. Now that smartphones and the BYOD trend have made their mark, it would appear there is a new kid on the block – wearable technology. And as witnessed with smartphones, once widespread consumer adoption takes place, inevitably the corporate world is never far behind – provided it can see the value the new technology brings.

As noted by R "Ray" Wang, principal analyst and chairman of Constellation Research, Inc., "Wearables are a natural extension in the promise of mobility and create new opportunities for A&D.  While very common in military applications, commercial use cases range from improving efficiencies on the maintenance front with better information and visual insights to transforming the passenger experience by crew members. This convergence of material science and computing provides new disruptive business models and an opportunity to begin digital transformation initiatives."

So the question must be asked – just where does the value lie in wearable technology for the A&D industry?

Wearable tech is not new to a soldier or pilot – night vision technology is common – but it has not yet broken through in the support space. It's important that any technology introduced into the A&D industry has to have the underlying purpose of reducing complexity and workload for military and aviation operators. Maintenance and support domains offer untapped opportunity for efficiency improvements and cost savings, and safety, usability and efficiency are key requirements regardless of the application of such technology.

How likely is adoption of wearable technology in this environment?

1. Safety 'at the asset'
In A&D, the safety of workers or troops is always paramount. In a practical sense, wearable technology can significantly enhance safety in what can often be complex situations, as staff are able to have both hands free. The technology leaves no trailing cables and devices are not plugged into anything if they have to move quickly, say in the case of a fire – or under fire!

And handing wearable capabilities to a soldier can also ensure safety of troops on a larger scale. Equipment or logistics situations could be scanned by a specialist being fed the images to evaluate risk, and equipment malfunctions can be addressed by engineers directly to the soldier, providing a much more agile response to a changing tactical situation.

2. Usability is key
But whilst having the information 'at the asset' could prove extremely valuable, it is important to remember that any wearable technology must not hinder the user physically in any way. It must be able to meld seamlessly into the user's everyday actions without being compromised.

A battlefield is certainly not an easy place to be, and robustness, reliability and ease of use are all key factors to help ensure user safety – so wearables on the market today may be an interesting concept, particularly for support domains in A&D, but I don't think they're quite up to the challenge in more hostile environments just yet!

3. Improving MRO efficiency in aviation and the supply chain
However, such technology is beginning to make waves in the civil aviation industry. Japan airlines has already shown the practical applications of wearables through its use of Google Glass in their maintenance process. The glasses are worn by engineers working around the plane on the tarmac, with images of the aircraft sent to maintenance specialists for assessment. The maintenance specialists are then able to feed any issues they see back to the engineer on the ground, meaning that maintenance specialists are able to assess far more aircraft than they would be able to if they were on site. Work is completed promptly, can be assessed in real time and all information is recorded to assess further issues down the line.

Low-cost airlines like EasyJet are also looking at deploying new technology to enable a remote engineering team to see exactly what a pilot or engineer is seeing using virtual reality glasses. So, it appears that the practical use of wearables in maintenance has arrived.

There's also significant potential for wearable technology in the support chain where we could see a maintenance engineer using similar optical recognition technology to immediately understand what needs replacing, how long it would take to get there, with the option to automatically order it there and then. Instant information availability combined with accurate data capture in a 2-way interactive process can remove multiple unnecessary steps and could significantly increase efficiency in operations.

Enhanced behavior required
The key to the use of any advanced technology is the importance of creating a sustained behavior. In a white paper from supply chain consultants Endeavour, they outline “The 9 Baseline Criteria” which are needed to drive initial adoption and utilization of wearable technology. What is highly evident is that real life adoption of wearables requires behavioral changes from the user.

Research has shown that consumers can get bored with wearable technology within months of ownership and the White Paper cites a US example where one-third of American consumers stopped using specific wearable technology within six months.

Education and habit formation are the key issues here. If the user knows that the technology can enhance their daily activities then they are more likely to adapt to it. Continued use makes the technology “natural” and something the user feels they cannot do their job without. Other workers then see this as the norm and have a social motivation to then adopt the technology themselves. The result being that wearable technology blends into the everyday and becomes less alien.

But how will this develop?
Over the next few years, I think wearable technology will reinvent the working day across many different industries – from nurses to office workers to deep sea oil rig engineers – but the key to success, particularly in A&D, is to ensure the technology focuses on the end users' requirements.

IFS Applications is already running on a Samsung Gear 2 smart watch as a proof-of-concept with IFS Labs, and it demonstrates the ability to engage with content from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) systems to not only read updates, but also make transactions, send alerts for certain processes and to receive important notifications in real-time.

Any 'new' technology has to reduce complexity and workload for military and aviation operators, and the most important thing is to ensure that wearables will deliver on this – perhaps we will see A&D embrace this revolutionary technology, but it will have to deliver on business needs as opposed to simply being the latest technology 'in fashion'.

Share this article:

Contact

Make an Enquiry

We will protect your privacy - the data you provide on this contact form will only be forwarded to the intended recipient.

Contact Details

List Your Company Design Agency