Rachel Cuthbert

Modelling information requirements in complex engineering services

Services based around complex engineering equipment and systems provide substantial challenges in both the long-term management of the equipment and the need for guaranteed delivery of the related service. One of the challenges for an organisation providing these services is the management of the information that is required to design, deliver and subsequently assess the success of the service. To assist in this process this paper develops a model for capturing, organising and assessing information requirements for these Complex Engineering Services in which information required to support key decisions in the life cycle of the service is identified. The model - referred to as The 12-Box Model for Service Information Requirements - is embedded in a three-phase procedure for providing an assessment of information requirements of a service contract which also provides insight into the capabilities of available information systems in supporting the contract. An illustrative example examining service information in an aircraft availability contract is used to demonstrate the use of the 12-Box Model and associated assessment procedure.

The Impact of Contract Type on Service Provider Information Requirements

This paper is concerned with the role of information in the servitization of manufacturing which has led to “the innovation of an organisation’s capabilities and processes as equipment manufacturers seek to offer services around their products†(Neely, 2009; Baines et al., 2009). This evolution has resulted in an information requirement (IR) shift as companies move from discrete provision of equipment and spare parts to long-term service contracts guaranteeing prescribed performance levels. Organisations providing such services depend on a very high level of availability and quality of information throughout the service life-cycle (Menor et al., 2002). This work focuses on whether, for a proposed contract based around complex equipment, the Information System is capable of providing information at an acceptable quality and requires the IRs to be examined in a formal manner. The authors apply a service information framework (Cuthbert et al., 2008; McFarlane & Cuthbert, 2012) to methodically assess IRs for different contract types to understand the information gap between them. Results from case examples indicate that this gap includes information required for the different contract types and a set of contract-specific IRs. Furthermore, the control, ownership and use of information differs across contract types as the boundary of operation and responsibility changes.

A Framework for Service Information Requirements

The increase in the percentage of revenue gained by nations as a result of growth in the service sector has been accompanied by the use of performance-based contracts to support such services. These performance-based contracts tend to be long-term in nature and often involve multiple parties in their service operation. In order to support such a service operation, information is required for its design, delivery and evaluation. This chapter provides a review of models and frameworks for the design and development of services. It focuses on providing details of a framework which has been developed for the determination of, specifically, service information requirements in order to design, deliver and evaluate services provided against engineering assets. It provides some general analyses of problems encountered within service providing organisations, and highlights areas of good practice. Further areas of application for the proposed framework are also presented.

Investigating the Role of Information on Service Strategies Using Discrete Event Simulation

This chapter details the work on a demonstration to illustrate the impact of information in the context of complex engineering services. The demonstration is achieved via a simulation model which illustrates factors, such as different service contracts, different levels of product condition information required by and available to the service provider, other constraints on the service system and different service performance levels achieved. The contribution of this work is showing, through simulating several scenarios, how support services may be improved as a result of providing better product condition information feedback to the service provider. In addition, the model factors in a number of other variables which have a significant impact on the level of the service provided. Results from the simulation models are presented, and a discussion of areas for further work is also provided. This discussion includes some suggested next steps and future information-related questions which the model may seek to answer.

A Case Study Approach to Examining Service Information Requirements

In this paper, we propose a case study approach to examine and assess the information required to underpin services for particular industrial service offerings. The focus of this paper is on the means by which service information requirements may be extracted and understood, as opposed to on how service information requirements are subsequently used.

Repair Services for Domestic Appliances

There has been a trend of increasing levels of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment over the last few decades as the possibility for accessing repair of appliances has declined. Reducing prices of appliances has also generated a culture where the disposal and replacement with new appliances is the quicker and cheaper option, compared with repair. A number of key areas have been identified as important in helping to increase the number of appliances which may feasibly be repaired in the future. Of these, two key areas encompass the automation of repair of appliances, and the information requirements in order to achieve this. Within this paper, a demonstrator will be described which provides a step towards illustrating the potential of product intelligence and semi-automated repair.