Through-life Engineering Services Research Articles

A design framework for technology prioritisation in the context of through-life engineering services

Lack of methods on standardising the prioritisation of technologies within the context of Through-life Engineering Services (TES) has been identified. Inspired by the TES value streams and support activity assets, existing within a common TES framework, a new design framework for technologies prioritisation is proposed. A dynamic toolkit to identify the most suitable technology is also developed, using a Quality Function Deployment method, Analytic Hierarchy Process and ROI analysis. A real case study from the defence sector is employed to validate the developed design framework and toolkit; the results show a well-structured guide that can effectively simplify the decision-making process.

Peer-Review under Responsibility of the Programme Chair of the 10Th International Conference on Through-Life Engineering Services. Simulation Model for Cost and Availability Estimation at the Bidding Stage in the Presence of Limited Data

Peer-Review under Responsibility of the Programme Chair of the 10Th International Conference on Through-Life Engineering Services. Simulation Model for Cost and Availability Estimation at the Bidding Stage in the Presence of Limited Data

Foreword to the 10th International Through-Life Engineering Services Conferences (Tesconf2021): The Need for Sustainable Through-Life Engineering Services in the Era of Industry 4.0 and Beyond

Foreword to the 10th International Through-Life Engineering Services Conferences (Tesconf2021): The Need for Sustainable Through-Life Engineering Services in the Era of Industry 4.0 and Beyond

Peer-Review Under Responsibility of the Programme Chair of the 10th International Conference on Through-Life Engineering Services. Application of the Fuzzy Model in the Evaluation and Selection of Hydraulic Excavators on Open-Pit Lignite Mine

The production of lignite in large open-pit mines is mainly performed with continuously operating equipment, where bucket-wheel excavators, bucket-chain excavators, belt conveyors, and spreaders are the basic machines. Smaller machines, usually of discontinuous operating nature, are commonly categorized as auxiliary machines. This paper presents the research related to the analysis of auxiliary machine parameters with the case study for a hydraulic excavator. The purpose of the analysis was to develop a model of rating quality of service of the engineering system and with the aim of a systematic approach to asset management. The analysis included all relevant parameters of machine operation to aid the decision-making process during the next purchase. The method presented in this paper relies on Fuzzy theory and represents another approach to the analysis of existing data in addition to methods based on Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM).

Foreword: 9th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Service

Dear Colleagues, On behalf of the TESConf 2020 International Scientific Committee and Organizing Committee, it is our great pleasure for us to welcome you to the 9th International Conference on Through-life Engineering Services (TES) hosted by Cranfield University. This seasoned conference has served as a meeting point for the academic and industrial communities to address current and future industrial challenges in TES. This meeting welcomes contributions about the state-of-the-art technologies and the implementation of advances in the sustainable and economic management of high-value assets across their life cycle from design through to manufacturing, in-use and disposal. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted almost every aspect of our lives and the conference has migrated to a new digital platform. You will still find similar layout in terms of virtual rooms and sessions, which you will be able to access through dedicated links. This is a new environment that we hope to make the most of in a very successful event. This edition of the conference includes eight academic sessions, which cover the latest advances in TES. The sessions have been designed to enhance understanding in how to connect different phases of the asset life cycle. This will cover challenges, such as design for service, evaluating the impact of degradation, and understanding the sustainability implications of TES. Additionally, attendees will enjoy five keynotes from academics and industrialists representing different sectors. We are also planning six industrial workshops that offer interactive sessions in a range of topics ranging from skills requirements, to technical solutions. We hope you enjoy our digital platform and wish you have a successful conference.

Through-Life Engineering Services for Offshore Wind Energy

The concept of Through-life Engineering Services (TES) was developed to streamline high value asset management throughout their lifecycle to save significant costs by increasing availability of the asset. In this regard, PAS-280 (2018) was published to provide industry with a reference point and common framework for developing a TES based business model adding value to their business. The UK civil aerospace sector is one of the most mature industries in adopting the concept of TES by employing innovative business models, e.g. the “Power-by-the-Hour” scheme, deployed by Rolls-Royce. Although, TES is a well-accepted methodology by key industries in the UK, it is still a new concept to many, particularly SMEs, and consequently there is a very low adoption rate in other sectors, e.g. renewable energy. Offshore wind energy sector is less mature compared to other sectors and has been identified as one of the fastest growing industries for generating clean energy. The UK has made a long-term commitment to net-zero carbon emissions in response to the threat of climate change and holds the biggest market for Offshore Wind globally, at 36%, worth over £24bn, with a further £0.5bn in operation and maintenance (O&M) costs per year. The industry is currently heavily subsidised by the government using taxpayer money, which burdens government finances and is a risk to the asset owners, due to threats associated with defunding. Therefore, it is vital to protect the assets whilst increasing revenue using industrially accepted business models, i.e. TES oriented, from more mature sectors. This paper aims to highlight the gaps and challenges in the sector (specifically in the UK), and identify the potential opportunities, through the application of TES principles and approaches, for improving the profitability/cost effectiveness of offshore assets. This will be considered in the context for the TES Framework (PAS-280).

Human-oriented maintenance and disassembly in sustainable manufacturing

This paper aims to enhance human involvement in equipment maintenance and product disassembly, which are essential in product end-of-life (EOL) planning and achieving sustainable manufacturing. Maintenance operations can extend the production lifespan of machinery, whereas disassembly is an essential step in EOL processes, such as reusing, recycling and remanufacturing. Notably, most maintenance activities and disassembly operations are still conducted manually. Hence, an integrated framework that considers appropriate human factors and ergonomic conditions in these two phases is proposed. First, a review on current approaches in sustainable manufacturing, such as through-life engineering services and continuous maintenance is presented. Next, an integrated framework for maintenance and disassembly based on advanced human computer interaction and soft computing techniques is described. In the maintenance phase, a sensor network that tracks the steps performed by a user during maintenance operations is implemented. The proposed network can account for situations where the user is far away from the maintenance job area and when the user is carrying out the actual maintenance job. This tracking data and information will serve as a basis for comparison to obtain maintenance quality related information and provide real time ergonomics feedback. This information is utilized for disassembly optimisation with human factors consideration. In line with Industry 4.0 concept, this framework allows (i) improvement of maintenance quality with the inclusion of steps tracking during disassembly and maintenance operations and (ii) monitoring and consideration of the well-being of operators. Case studies are implemented to illustrate the proposed framework followed by discussion and conclusion with future work.

Toward an Integrated Sustainability Assessment in Through-life Engineering Services

Through-life Engineering Services (TES) is comprised of develop, prepare, utilize and retire phases for complex engineering assets with a focus on maximizing their availability, predictability and reliability at the lowest possible life-cycle cost. TES employs a set of technologies and solutions to improve asset performance efficiently. On the other hand, optimal solutions for minimizing waste in terms of service time and resources is crucial for designing the right service at the right time. Thereby, specifying the possible TES opportunities within the economic, social and environmental sustainability dimensions can be an added value across different manufacturing sectors when deploying TES. However, due to the complexities and immensity of TES approaches, it is challenging to perceive such opportunities. To this end, the existing literature is limited to the effect of TES on economic sustainability and mostly focuses on investigating how TES has modified the service design to improve productivity and profitability. However, a comprehensive study on integrated sustainability has not been yet conducted. This paper presents a holistic view of the potential TES opportunities associated with the sustainability triple bottom line following a systematic review of empirical and theoretical advancements and methodological approaches in the literature. The outcome from this research raises the awareness of TES contribution in the design of sustainable service solutions and technologies, and offers a benchmark and reference point for future research in the field. Finally, this paper provides a set of recommendations that call for the further development of an integrated sustainability assessment framework for TES.

Service Data Quality Management Framework to Enable Through-life Engineering Services

With the growth of the product-service system (PSS) in recent years, how to better manage the service data to improve the informed decision-making capability has become an on-going aim among the Through-life Engineering Services (TES) firms. This scenario has led managers, more and more, to turn their attention to the quality of data and information created, gathered and used within the company. Encouraged by this background, a service data quality framework has been developed aiming to provide companies with a set of methods and tools to prioritise relevant service data and assess its quality levels. The process involves four main steps that go through: (1) Mapping out important data for Through-life Support available within the company and its internal and external flows; (2) Application of a multiple criteria decision-making technique to prioritise the relevant data set considering its costs for being collected and maintained, business impact, frequency of use and ease of obtainability; (3) Quality assessment of the prioritised dataset, based on a capability maturity model; (4) Defining strategies to address data quality issues. Validation on an industrial case study demonstrates potential benefits of the process and further work opportunities.

Through-life Engineering: Inspirations from Nature

Nature provides us with many examples of through-life engineering services. Our bodies must last a lifetime, and in order to achieve this they are constantly being repaired. Animals as small and simple as the limpet (a sea snail) are equipped with subtle systems of detection and repair that allow the animal to assess potential threats to the integrity of its shell and effect repair and remodeling accordingly. The human body is much more sophisticated, thanks to its 70 trillion cells, each acting as an information store, computer and factory combined and all connected in a vast network. We still know very little about how our body parts are maintained and repaired, but one material – bone – has received considerable attention. Our bones are constantly developing fatigue microcracks, which must be repaired to avoid early failure. This is achieved through a complex system of cells, with specialized functions, supplied through a vascular network. There is considerable scope for learning from Nature to develop better through-life engineering services and systems, such as responsive decision-making networks and self-healing materials.

Digital twins: Understanding the added value of integrated models for through-life engineering services

Digital twins are digital representations of physical products or systems that consist of multiple models from various domains describing them on multiple scales. By means of communication, digital twins change and evolve together with their physical counterparts throughout their lifecycle. Domain-specific partial models that make up the digital twin, such as the CAD model or the degradation model, are usually well known and provide accurate descriptions of certain parts of the physical asset. However, in complex systems, the value of integrating the partial models increases because it facilitates the study of their complex behaviours which only emerge from the interactions between various parts of the system. The paper proposes that the partial models of the digital twin share a common model space that integrates them through a definition of their interrelations and acts as a bridge between the digital twin and the physical asset. The approach is illustrated in a case of a mechatronic product - a differential drive mobile robot developed as a testbed for digital twin research. It is demonstrated how the integrated models add value to different stages of the lifecycle, allowing for evaluation of performance in the design stage and real-time reflection with the physical asset during its operation.

Editorial for the Special Issue on Through-Life Engineering Services

Editorial for the Special Issue on Through-Life Engineering Services

Through-life Engineering in Product-service Systems – Tussles for Design and Implementation

While maintenance is still dominating in Through-life Engineering Services (TES), Product-Service Systems (PSS) emerge as holistic solutions for customer problems. However, there are still tussles to be overcome. Product and service engineering are using different methodologies and tools. Product design is still receiving little information from both life cycles, and a digital representation of PSS to ensure interoperability is missing. Professional design knowledge and customer sentiment have to be combined, while service-based business models could endanger product sales. This paper aims to discuss the challenges for PSS with TES and give an overview on attempts to overcome the identified tussles.

A Research Study of no Fault Found (NFF) in the Royal Air Force

The No Fault Found (NFF) problem continues to reduce operational availability and have an impact on cost and resources in the RAF. Following extensive research by the Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Through-Life Engineering Services, access was provided to a significant number of RAF aircraft maintenance personnel under the sponsorship of Air Command at RAF High Wycombe. Maintenance personnel from seven different aircraft fleets, including large aircraft, fast jets and rotary platforms were involved. A number of substantial conclusions were made resulting in 26 recommendations. The paper reviews and substantiates these conclusions and recommendations.

Utilising the Internet of Things for the Management of Through-life Engineering Services on Marine Auxiliaries

The producers of marine auxiliaries face the challenge, that they need to adapt their schedule for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations and other Through-life Engineering Services (TES) to the otherwise defined and often not well communicated schedules of the ships, which are carrying their products. The management of the MRO operations is currently a manual and time-consuming effort and makes the creation of Product Service Systems (PSS) a tedious effort. To help overcome this – unnecessary – hurdle, this paper presents a solution approach and its prototypical implementation utilising the Internet of Things (IoT) to aid the marine auxiliaries’ producers in the process of managing the product usage phase and its services. As data basis for the decision support, the constantly produced information of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) is used, and combined with Product Usage Information and enterprise data.

Outcome-based Contracts – Towards Concurrently Designing Products and Contracts

Outcome-based contracts that pay for effectiveness and penalize performance shortcomings have been introduced to incentivize cost reduction efforts on the contractor side of product service systems (PSSs). Outcome-based contracting concepts are being used for PSS acquisitions in healthcare, energy, military systems and infrastructure. These contracts allow customers to pay only for the specific outcomes achieved (e.g., availability) rather than the workmanship and materials delivered.Given the rise in interest in outcome-based contracts, it is incumbent upon the through-life engineering services (TES) community to determine how to design systems (including designing the sustainment of systems) to operate under these contract mechanisms, and to ultimately coordinate the system design with the design of the contract terms. Furthermore, sustainment decisions made under outcome-based contracts must target the optimum action for the population of systems managed under the contract, rather than the optimum action for an individual system. Today, outcome-based contract design is always performed separate from the engineering and TES design processes, and provided as a requirement to the design process, an approach that creates significant risks for all parties. For systems managed under outcome-based contracts, contract failure may mean significant money is spent by the customer (potentially the public) for either no outcome or inadequate outcome, or result in the contractor being driven out of business, which can lead to disaster for both parties.

Interoperable Information Exchange as Enabler of NFF Related TES

The lifecycle of a product is managed through the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) including the integration of Product Service Systems (PSS) as well as Through-life Engineering Services. Both activities are performed by staff throughout the entire lifecycle and require the input of knowledge of different product lifecycle phases. The authors demonstrate the necessity of information exchange between the beginning of life and the middle of life on the example of NFF. The provision of the right information in the middle of life should be an information based TES which can only be achieved if the interoperability challenges are solved between the life-cycle phases. This paper demonstrates how existing semantic data integration approaches could be applied to enable the required information exchange. For that purpose, the modelling of test process related knowledge as ontology and corresponding extraction methods are presented.

Predictive Maintenance Modelling for Through-Life Engineering Services

Predictive maintenance needs to forecast the numbers of rejections at any overhaul point before any failure occurs in order to accurately and proactively take adequate maintenance action. In healthcare, prediction has been applied to foretell when and how to administer medication to improve the health condition of the patient. The same is true for maintenance where the application of prognostics can help make better decisions. In this paper, an overview of prognostic maintenance strategies is presented. The proposed data-driven prognostics approach employs a statistical technique of (i) the parameter estimation methods of the time-to-failure data to predict the relevant statistical model parameters and (ii) prognostics modelling incorporating the reliability Weibull Cumulative Distribution Function to predict part rejection, replacement, and reuse. The analysis of the modelling uses synthetic data validated by industry domain experts. The outcome of the prediction can further proffer solution to designers, manufacturers and operators of industrial product-service systems. The novelty in this paper is the development of the through-life performance approach. The approach ascertains when the system needs to undergo maintenance, repair and overhaul before failure occurs.

Maintenance Informatics Dashboard Design for Through-life Engineering Services

This article introduces maintenance informatics dashboard design approach for visualising maintenance, repair and overhaul events on a timeline. This paper presents a proposed methodology for aggregate visualisation techniques and a 2D graphical plot method as well as a summary of events on a timeline. In this paper, these events are occurrences which are classified and categorised into levels. The occurrences are accumulated over time as historical information and represented in a visual format over a timeline based on an entity relationship diagram. The information modelling technique with respect to data visualisation is emphasised. The result is a single-page-view of maintenance activities. The maintenance activities of aircraft engines are visualised to ease the accessibility of getting accurate and relevant information for making better maintenance decision. The result can be used to gain insight of the root cause of the events from inception to end of life of the engine.

Through-life engineering services of wind turbines

The past decade has seen exponential yearly growth in installed capacity wind energy power generation. As a result, wind farm (WF) projects have evolved from small scale isolated installations into complex utility scale power generation systems comprising of arrays of large wind turbines (WTs), which are designed to operate in harsh environments. However, this has increased the need for through-life engineering service (TES) for WTs especially in offshore applications, where the operations and maintenance (O&M) becomes more complicated as a result of the harsh marine weather and environmental conditions. In this paper, a generic methodology to benchmark TES in industries is presented and used to assess TES in the wind industry. This was done by identifying the current state-of-the-art in methods and applications, requirements and needs, challenges, and opportunities of TES in the wind sector. Furthermore an illustrative case study on WT gearbox through-life support is presented demonstrating how some of the core aspects, such as remote condition monitoring, can be used to aid the in-service support of wind turbine gearboxes.