The bottleneck before liftoff
Viasat operates a global network of ground stations, antennas, and Ground-Segment-as-a-Service solutions that support secure, high-throughput communication with LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites. Across these programs, speed and precision matter. So does the ability to move from design to manufacturing without documentation becoming a bottleneck.
For a custom ground station program involving roughly 40,000 parts, drawing creation had become a significant source of delay. Producing GD&T drawings at that scale required substantial manual effort, and even small inefficiencies multiplied quickly across the full part count.
To help reduce drawing time, improve drawing standardization, and keep engineering work moving, Viasat partnered with Drafter.
Challenge
For Viasat, engineering drawings are a critical part of turning complex hardware into something that can actually be built. But when a single ground station program involves tens of thousands of parts, drawing work can become a major burden on the engineering team.
Manual drawing creation takes time. Repetitive documentation work slows teams down. And at the scale of a 40,000-part program, those delays can meaningfully affect the path to production.
Viasat needed a faster way to produce GD&T drawings without lowering the bar on quality. Just as importantly, the team needed a solution that could be adopted smoothly inside a demanding engineering environment while improving consistency across drawings.
96%
Reduction in Drawing Time
100+
Engineering Hours Saved
32x
Improvement in Drawing Speed
Solution
Viasat adopted Drafter to accelerate GD&T drawing workflows for a ground station program at significant scale.
Drafter worked closely with the team through a white-glove, in-person onboarding process, helping engineers get up and running quickly and ensuring the workflow fit the realities of their existing process. Rather than simply handing over software, Drafter partnered directly with the team to support implementation and drive early success.
In addition to reducing manual effort, Drafter helped improve standardization and drawing quality by enabling 100% compliance with ASME Y14.5-2018. This gives Viasat the confidence to accelerate their programs worry free.
Results
Using Drafter, Viasat saved an average of 1 hour and 15 minutes per GD&T drawing, based on a time study conducted during the engagement.
That per-drawing time savings is the key lever. Applied across the roughly 40,000 parts in a single ground station program, it represents the potential for:
- 25,000 man-hours saved
- $875,000 in labor savings per ground station
These figures are directional based on the number of parts in a single ground station program and the average time savings Drafter enables per drawing. This is significant as Viasat operates across many such programs, meaning the broader efficiency opportunity increases as the workflow is applied more widely.
For Viasat, the value was straightforward: faster drawing throughput, less time spent on repetitive documentation work, improved standardization, and a more efficient path from engineering to production.
Why it matters
In complex hardware environments, delays often come from the work surrounding the design, not just the design itself. Documentation is one of those places where time quietly accumulates.
For Viasat, Drafter helped remove that friction. By making GD&T drawing creation faster, more standardized, and fully compliant with ASME Y14.5-2018, Drafter turned a slow, manual process into a more efficient part of the production workflow.
At the scale of a 40,000-part ground station program, even modest per-drawing savings can create meaningful impact. And when extrapolated across multiple programs, the operational upside becomes even more significant.
“Drafter gave us a more efficient and standardized approach to drawing creation. The time savings were meaningful, but just as important was the consistency it brought to a workflow that had previously relied heavily on manual effort.”
David Mack Mechanical Designer
