The neglected asset: information management in the UK aerospace industry

Abstract

Reports key findings of the AIM-UK (Aerospace Information Management-UK) study of the effectiveness of internal research and technology information management systems in theUKaerospace industry and the effectiveness of information seeking and utilization by scientists and engineers working in industry and academia. The main contextual issues included: the relationship between information management and knowledge management; the possible impact of the Freedom of Information Act; collaborative approaches to information resource sharing; the Technology Foresight Programme; the Civil Aircraft Research and Demonstration Programme; the SBAC Competitiveness Challenge; the Lean Aircraft Initiative; the Defence Diversification Agency; and the NASA/DoD Knowledge Diffusion Project. Directors or senior managers, in the 18 companies studied, were interviewed to evaluate how effective aerospace companies managed the information that they had generated and to examine how issues of defence and commercial sensitivities could be reconciled to the wider needs of the UK. Concludes that personal stores of information and discussion with colleagues are still the most frequently used information sources; electronic sources do not dominate either in academia or industry; use of intranets in both academia and industry are at a low level; and Internet use in industry and academia was far lower than expected. The results of the study have produced a strategy for enhancing information management in the UK aerospace sector.