| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/C534220/1 |
| Title: |
Immortal Information and Through-Life Knowledge Management (IITKM): Strategies and Tools for the Emerging Product-Service Paradigm |
| Principal Investigator: |
McMahon, Professor CA |
| Other Investigators: |
| Koskela, Dr LJ |
Lewis, Professor MA |
Finch, Professor E |
| Ritchie, Professor JM |
Culley, Professor S |
de Pennington, Professor A |
| Corney, Professor J |
Young, Professor R |
Aouad, Professor G |
| Ion, Professor W |
Newnes, Professor LB |
McDermott, Professor P |
| Clarkson, Professor J |
Juster, Professor NP |
Harding, Professor JA |
| Easterby-Smith, Professor M |
Antonacopoulou, Professor E |
Lyon, Dr E |
| Sinclair, Mr M |
Hughes, Professor W |
Green, Professor S |
| Flanagan, Professor R |
Wallace, Professor KM |
Austin, Professor S |
| Gann, Professor D |
Siemieniuch, Professor C |
McKay, Professor A |
| Dainty, Professor ARJ |
Sexton, Professor M |
Kagioglou, Professor M |
| Whyte, Dr J |
|
|
|
| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
|
| Project Partners: |
|
| Department: |
Mechanical Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Bath |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 October 2005 |
Ends: |
31 March 2009 |
Value (£): |
3,473,682
|
| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Building Ops & Management |
Construction Ops & Management |
| Design & Testing Technology |
Design Engineering |
| Design Processes |
Information & Knowledge Mgmt |
| Manufact. Enterprise Ops& Mgmt |
|
|
| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Aerospace, Defence and Marine |
Construction |
| Transport Systems and Vehicles |
|
|
| Related Grants: |
|
| Panel History: |
|
|
Summary on Grant Application Form |
|
Many engineering companies are today undergoing a paradigm shift from product delivery to through-life service support. The shift applies across a range of different sectors, including defence, civil aerospace and construction. If these sectors are to remain competitive, they require new business, operational and information-system models that extend thirty years or more into future. This proposal is concerned with identifying how products and systems from such sectors can be best designed and supported in the resulting dynamic, network centric, whole-life environment. The research question addressed by the project is to create a scientific base for the creation of a structured, network-enabled information and knowledge environment in which dispersed, multidisciplinary operational teams use sustainable knowledge management (KM) systems to execute effective, timely decisions within evolving engineering life-cycles . The project will comprise three key areas of research.- The first research area will focus on the creation of novel and extended representations of products. These will integrate methods for handling product information (what characteristics should the product have), design-process information (how was the product design arrived at) and design rationale (why has the design been done in this way). These models will allow the recording of design trade-offs, results of negotiation, evidence of decisionmaking and details of successful and unsuccessful designs. The project will also develop integrated approaches to design information organisational structures based on these integrated models and on the need to capture feedback from service experience.- The second research area will be concerned with learning from the product in use. The product life-cycle is itself part of a cycle of development of the information describing the artefact, the commercial, manufacturing and operational systems in which it is embedded, and of the knowledge embedded in the communities that develop, support and use these systems. Research will study the dynamics of this triumvirate of information, knowledge and systems in the context of products being embedded in systems of systems.- The third research area is concerned with creating organisational systems to manage the overall knowledge system life-cycle (KSLC) and the peoplecentric procedures within them. It will investigate the dynamics of knowledge use throughout the life-cycle of complex product-service systems in an extended enterprise context. There will be particular research focus on a) novel procurement frameworks and governance to secure innovative responses from prime contractors and the supply chain b) the human resource development policies necessary to support the shift from product delivery to service provision and c) the role of decision-support models at key decision pinch-points throughout the project life cycle.
|
|
Key Findings |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
|
Potential use in non-academic contexts |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
|
Impacts |
|
| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
|
| Date Materialised |
|
|
|
|
Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
| Project URL: |
https://www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/kim/ |
| Further Information: |
|
| Organisation Website: |
http://www.bath.ac.uk |