Louis E. Redding

The adoption and use of diagnostic and prognostic technology within UK-based manufacturers:

Manufacturers are seeking increasingly innovative ways to achieve competitive advantage. An emerging trend is to exploit diagnostic and prognostic technology to support service-led competitive strategies where the emphasis is put on the ‘sale of use’ rather than the ‘sale of product’. However, little is known about the extent to which this technology is being exploited, the drivers and inhibitors, and the sectors where adoption is most prolific. This paper introduces the results of a survey conducted across the UK manufacturing sector to explore the extent, motivations, benefits, and challenges of deploying diagnostic and prognostic technology as an element of competitive strategy.

The adoption and use of Through-life Engineering Services within UK Manufacturing Organisations

Manufacturing organisations seek ever more innovative approaches in order to maintain and improve their competitive position within the global market. One such initiative that is gaining significance is ‘through-life engineering services’. These seek to adopt ‘whole life’ service support through the greater understanding of component and system performance driven by knowledge gained from maintenance, repair and overhaul activities. This research presents the findings of exploratory research based on a survey of UK manufacturers who provide through-life engineering services. The survey findings illustrate significant issues to be addressed within the field before the concept becomes widely accepted. These include a more proactive approach to maintenance activities based on real-time responses; standardisation of data content, structure, collection, storage and retrieval protocols in support of maintenance; the development of clear definitions, ontologies and a taxonomy of through-life engineering services in support of the service delivery system; lack of understanding of component and system performance due to the presence of ‘No Fault Found’ events that skew maintenance metrics and the increased use of radio-frequency identification technology in support of maintenance data acquisition.

Development of an Ontology for Aerospace Engine Components Degradation in Service

This paper presents the development of an ontology for component service degradation. In this paper, degradation mechanisms in gas turbine metallic components are used for a case study to explain how a taxonomy within an ontology can be validated. The validation method used in this paper uses an iterative process and sanity checks. Data extracted from on-demand textual information are filtered and grouped into classes of degradation mechanisms. Various concepts are systematically and hierarchically arranged for use in the service maintenance ontology. The allocation of the mechanisms to the AS-IS ontology presents a robust data collection hub. Data integrity is guaranteed when the TO-BE ontology is introduced to analyse processes relative to various failure events. The initial evaluation reveals improvement in the performance of the TO-BE domain ontology based on iterations and updates with recognised mechanisms. The information extracted and collected is required to improve service knowledge and performance feedback which are important for service engineers. Existing research areas such as natural language processing, knowledge management, and information extraction were also examined.

Through-Life Engineering Services: Definition and Scope: A Perspective from the Literature

Through-life Engineering Services (TES) provide product support throughout each stage of the product-lifecycle; from conception, through design, manufacture and operational life, to end of life disposal. They are seen as a natural stage in the evolution of product support and maintenance, repair and overhaul strategy. They are the sum of many diverse product support strategies which use emerging and traditional technologies, processes, and applications. Whilst there are increasing numbers of contributions to be found within the literature defining the content, scope, purpose and application of the supporting technologies one sees no definition for TES emerging. This chapter offers a definition for Through-life Engineering Services which states what the concept is. It gives dimension, application, and purpose for TES in its role as a facilitator of Technology Enabled Service Delivery Systems which support manufacturing organisations wishing to compete through the adoption of Product Service Systems. An initial taxonomy is also presented.

Future Challenges and Opportunities in Through-Life Engineering Services and Concluding Remarks

This chapter presents the challenges and opportunities which were identified from a review of the literature and during several key events which brought academics, researchers and industrialists together to discuss the way forward. It presents opinions and insights taken from comments made by stakeholders and from event transcripts and of discussions and presentations. From the findings presented the chapter gives insight into the way forward and the benefits that can be obtained with the successful adoption of TES. Drivers and inhibitors are also identified.