Emerald just published the world’s first peer-reviewed paper taking a management perspective on drones in manufacturing. Written by Omid Maghazei and myself, the paper explores the current state and future opportunities for using drones in factories. The paper published in the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management is open access. Here are the main findings.

Researching drones in manufacturing

Since 2016, the Chair of Production and Operations Management at ETH Zurich has investigated the potential of drones in manufacturing. We have interviewed drone vendors, drone users, manufacturing specialists, visited drone exhibitions and even run field experiments with drones in manufacturing companies. It is not by coincidence that this research is taking place at ETH Zurich; Switzerland is known as the home of drones.

The new paper presents the first rigorous analysis of current and potential applications of drones in manufacturing. While outdoor applications have become well established, the business case for indoor use of drones is much less clear. Due to the novelty of drone applications in manufacturing, there is little empirical evidence and we struggled to identify projects that had moved beyond the piloting phase. In this paper, we therefore used a qualitative research method called interviewing experts. The data comes from 66 interviews with drone experts from 56 companies headquartered in 13 countries worldwide and an extensive document analysis.

A typology for drones in manufacturing

The resulting typology (see figure) separates four types of applications based on the combination of the physical and analytical capabilities of drones.

• “See” is the capability of collecting visual data, often in the forms of images and videos. These applications have low analytical and physical capabilities.
• “Sense” is the capability of collecting data and transforming it into the other forms of data or structured data (i.e. information). These applications have a high analytical capability and a low physical capability.
• “Move” is the capability of a drone system to grasp and carry objects or perform physical operations. These applications have a low analytical capability and a high physical capability.
• “Transform” is the capability of a drone system to collect data, interpret them into information, and perform physical operations as a response to the information. These applications have high analytical and physical capabilities.

Current state of drones in manufacturing

Today, there are few established applications of drones in manufacturing. The majority of the current applications of drones are the “see” and “sense” types. “See” applications are found in manufacturers with large facilities, tanks, hazardous areas, cranes, conveyors, or high machines that require regular inspections, where drones replace costly manual inspections. “Sense” capabilities can be developed by integrating other sensors as payload, such as thermal cameras, gas-sniffing sensors, laser or ultrasound sensors, LiDAR scanners, or barcode- or RFID readers.

“Move” and “transform” tasks require high physical capabilities and current drones are inferior to tools, sensors, and cameras that are mounted to fixed infrastructure (ceilings, floors, walls, AGVs, or cranes). “Move” operations, such as intra-logistics and part delivery applications, are rare, and their use is practical only in small, light, and urgent “emergency” deliveries. But even in the case of missing parts on assembly lines, the better option is to remove the root cause of the error.

“Transform” operations are rare not only in manufacturing but in all industries. Some applications are in the experimental stage in the oil and gas industry and the construction and infrastructure industries. In manufacturing, remote maintenance operations and corrosion protection may be promising business cases in nuclear power plants, metal smelting plants, shipyards, petrochemical plants and other large process industry plants. However, the risk of explosion remains a technical hurdle for the full adoption of drones in these contexts.

Prospects for drones in manufacturing

Many companies are now experimenting with the use of drones in different applications, and a few manufacturers have already begun to use drone applications in warehouse operations and inspection tasks. Nevertheless, there is a significant potential for further drone applications. As drone technology continues to develop during the next 5–10 years, we expect a range of new use cases to emerge across many manufacturing industries.

Despite the great amount of technological development during the past decade, there are still technological, organizational and regulatory challenges to the implementation of drones. Drones will not revolutionize manufacturing alone, but they have the potential to radically improve the efficiency of certain factory tasks. In 2025, drones are likely to be a much more common sight in manufacturing facilities than they are today.

Industry example

In a recent project, we have teamed up with Geberit, a leading manufacturer of sanitary products, to test the use of drones in real factory settings. This video made by ETH Industry Relations gives a good impression of the identified opportunities and challenges of using drones in manufacturing:

Resources

The new paper is open access and can be downloaded for free here: Maghazei, O. and Netland, T. (2019) Drones in manufacturing: exploring opportunities for research and practice, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, in press.

Recently we also published a white paper on drones in warehouse operations. It can be accessed for free here: Wawrla, L.; Maghazei, O.; and Netland, T. (2019) Applications of drones in warehouse operations. Whitepaper. ETH Zurich, D-MTEC, Chair of Production and Operations Management.

Further questions? Please contact Omid Maghazei.