Introduction

Contact

Chris Pearson
S4T Programme coordinator
Email:cp349@cam.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1223 764836
Fax: +44 (0)1223 464217

This research studied the continuing transformation of the UK economy towards increasing value generation from product related services.

Traditional product related service offerings are based on provision of spare parts and repair services. Increasing complexity and costs, particularly of major engineering systems, has led to customer demand for integrated product availability or performance based models of service provision and increased recognition of the importance of supplier-customer partnering.

Concentrating on contracting for availability in the aerospace and defence sectors, the programme had two overarching research questions:

What is the target?

What should an affordable support service offering look like and what type of organisation is required to deliver it?

What is the transition?

How can more traditional offerings and organisations be migrated to help a company achieve this target?

Five work packages address these questions from different perspectives, drawing upon researchers from different disciplines from nine universities.

Work Package 1: Organisational Transformation
Work Package 2: Service Information Strategy
Work Package 3: Risk and Cost Assessment
Work Package 4: Combined Maintenance and Capability Enhancement
Work Package 5: Integration and Co-ordination

S4T video

High-resolution S4T video (Quicktime .mov file, 1.05Gb)

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Academic partners

• University of Cambridge, Institute for Manufacturing
• University of Bath, School of Management
• Defence College of Management and Technology, Cranfield University
• Cranfield University,  Decision Engineering, SAS
• University of Exeter, School of Business and Economics
• University of Leeds, School of Mechanical Engineering
• Loughborough University, Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering
• University of Nottingham, School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
• Salford University, Salford Business School
• Queen's University Belfast, School of Aeronautical Engineering

Industrial partner

• BAE Systems

Research council

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)