Extracting and Searching Knowledge for the Aerospace Industry

A fundamental shift is occurring in many industries away from the selling of products (e.g. cars) to the provision of services (e.g. transport, car leasing). Essential to the long-term success of businesses in this emerging global environment is the creation of new Integrated Products And Services (IPAS). For example in Rolls-Royce plc (RR) the business model is changing from one of selling products (e.g. aircraft engines) and spare parts to one (driven by customer demand) of selling services (e.g. Total Care). This requires knowledge transfer between three very different worlds: new service design, new product design, and the operation of existing products and services in the field: the new product designer and the new service designer require significantly increased access to data on the behaviour of existing products in the field.