In-Service Information Required in a Redesign Task: An Analysis of Documents from the Aerospace Industry

This research was undertaken in an aerospace company, which manufactures aero engines and also offers contracts, under which it remains responsible for the maintenance of engines. These contracts allow the company to collect far more data about the in-service performance of their engines than was previously available. This paper aims at understanding what parts of this in-service information are accessed when components or systems of existing aero engines need to be redesigned, because they have not performed as expected in service. In an attempt to address this aim, five case studies involving the redesign of components of an aero engine are examined. The redesign is based on the in-service experience of the existing components.The findings provide an understanding of the different types of information, and in particular the types of in-service information, accessed by designers in a redesign task

In-service information required by engineering designers

This paper describes some research stimulated by a fundamental shift that is occurring in the manufacture and marketing of aero engines for commercial and defence purposes, away from the selling of products to the provision of services. The collaborating aerospace company offers contracts under which it remains responsible for the maintenance of engines which have been purchased by airlines through these contracts based on payment for usage. This has triggered a major re-assessment of the design of aero engines to reduce their overall life cycle costs, while maintaining performance efficiency. In this context, the use of in-service experience of existing engines is important in the design of components and systems of a new engine, to tackle in-service issues through design and thus to reduce maintenance costs and increase reliability. This paper aims at identifying designers’ requirements regarding in-service information. Semi-structured interviews with designers from an aerospace company were conducted; after these interviews, the designers were requested to comment on a set of questions regarding in-service information, indicating how frequently they might ask each of them when designing a new component or system. In addition, some documents containing the in-service information considered by the designers in designing components and systems of a new engine were analysed. The results indicate what in-service information is required by designers for this new task

The difficulties reported by engineers in searching information

Efforts have been made by researchers in the area of knowledge management to understand engineers’ information searching behaviors, such as the types of information searched by engineers, and the sources and tools they use to address their information needs. However, few studies pay attention to the difficulties that engineers are experiencing in fulfilling their information needs. This paper presents an exploratory study that investigates the problems of information searching in engineering design development. In this research, eight engineers with different level of experience were interviewed to identify the difficulties they deal with in searching required information. The reported problems that participants are experiencing include: 1) formulating information queries; 2) hesitation in consulting others; 3) the limitations of existing retrieval tools

A Conceptual Framework to Support Engineering Designers in Using In-Service Information

Abstract in Undetermined In the global market of air transport, the integration of products and services is seen as being necessary for the long-term success of engine manufacturers. A flow of in-service information to designers is crucial for minimising in-service issues. A literature review showed that there are no studies that have proposed or developed methods or tools to support designers in using in-service information in a design task. The work presented in this paper aims at proposing a framework to support designers in using in-service information in a design task

‘Causality’ in in-service information and design actions

In the global market of air transport, integration of products and services is now seen as being necessary for the long-term success of engine manufacturers. This paper describes research stimulated by a fundamental shift that is occurring in the manufacture and marketing of aero engines for commercial and defence purposes, away from the selling of products to the provision of services. Our collaborating aerospace company now offers TotalCareTM contracts, under which it leases engines to airlines while remaining responsible for their maintenance. The aims of our ongoing research are to: (1) understand the current flows of in-service information to designers; (2) understand the in-service information requirements of designers; (3) develop, based on this understanding, the most appropriate theories and methods to support designers in their new task. The work presented in this paper aims at understanding the use of in-service information in a design task by examining the executed design changes, and the rationale behind these changes. In an attempt to address this aim, a case study involving the redesign of the ‘burner seal’ of an aero engine, is used. The redesign is based on the in-service experience of the existing burner seal