Impact case study database

The impacts of the research outputs were mainly achieved through collaborating with companies during and after the research and innovation projects, i.e., research and its impact have been intertwined continuously. During each project, monthly project meetings were held, and in many cases, the meetings were held within the collaborating companies, engaging more engineers and managers. In this way, outputs were transferred to industry effectively and timely. The research group also coordinated a ‘Manufacturing Industry Focus Group in Southeast England’ and organised regular industrial workshops (normally twice a year). Companies in this region were updated with the most recent research achievements, and often further knowledge transfer activities were arranged afterwards. For example, after a workshop in 2012, Cummins Inc. requested a special seminar with the research team to further discuss OS3 and then sponsored a three-year research project.

Transforming knowledge sharing, improving design and production efficiency, reducing failures, and saving costs at BAE Systems plc

BAES is a global defence, aerospace and security company and is among the top 5 UK ministry of defence contractors. They employ over 85,800 people worldwide. BAES Rochester operates as a manufacturing hub for avionic and maritime defence products. The company was interested in the EPSRC project (IMRC 51) presented by Gao at his inaugural lecture at UoG, and as a result, co-funded an EPSRC Industrial Case Grant which ran from 2008 until 2012. This project aimed to further develop the knowledge framework ( OS1) to address social and cultural aspects in product lifecycle activities. During the project, unstructured tacit knowledge ( OS3) in project meetings, and knowledge of retired/departed employees were captured, properly managed and reused to improve business operations in the company. Since then, the work was so successful that BAES co-funded two other ESPRC Industrial Case Grants with Gao as PI, expanding all outputs strands from the UoG research in a collaboration that ran for over 10 years.

During all three projects, UoG research team worked closely with the company to capture their requirements, knowledge and feedback, and regularly demonstrated the outputs ( OS1, OS2 & OS3) with their case studies to a stakeholders’ group consisting of managers and engineers from design engineering, testing, manufacturing, quality, IT and procurement departments. Through this the research was transferred to all members of the respective departments. BAES (Rochester) reports that changes directly impacted by the research in the eligible period were (5.1): Increased employee acceptance of new work-sharing platforms as standard ways of working; Knowledge management culture has significantly improved through an increase in the use of knowledge repositories including risk reduction knowledge; Transfer of knowledge plans put in place for retiring experts; Local and cross-organisation communities of practice was established with respect to the knowledge framework which improved knowledge sharing; The knowledge framework was used as a reference model by the IT department to improve company-wide product lifecycle management system, which increased knowledge search efficiency and accuracy; Design and production efficiency were increased, part failures & re-works reduced, time to market and cost reduced.

The research outputs were also shared across the whole enterprise of BAES and its external partners globally through their internal research and innovation conferences and dissemination channels. The majority of which have been captured in over 37 collaborative academic papers. Prof Gao was nominated by BAES for the Chairman’s Award (Nomination title: Making the most of our Research, ID: 40719, 2019). The award is given by the chairman to recognise an individual’s contributions to BAES and the positive impact they have made to the business. Although not eventually elected, his persistent collaboration over a decade with the company was recognised and highly appreciated.

Transforming knowledge sharing, improving design and testing efficiency, saving costs, and impriving employee satisfaction at Cummins Inc.

Cummins is a global power leader that designs, manufactures, sells and services diesel and alternative fuel engines, with 55,400 direct employees worldwide. Its Power Generation Business (Ramsgate site, UK) participated in the regular industrial workshops headed by Gao and this eventually led to them co-funding a three-year research project in 2015 to further develop and implement the knowledge framework for improving their testing processes in global product development ( OS1). During the project, storytelling and video sharing functionalities were embedded into a corporate social media site which was capable of facilitating the capture and sharing of employee knowledge, including employee feedback ( OS3) in global product development processes. The knowledge framework developed by UoG researchers was directly driven by the knowledge users, providing both knowledge direction and content. The company’s IT manager and engineers also further developed and applied the knowledge framework ( OS1) to manage standardised and modular product models with structured engineering knowledge ( OS2) for integrated design, manufacturing and resources across the global supply chain. The results were validated in the Ramsgate (UK) site and its global R&D centre in the USA and applied across its global operations.

During the eligible period, significant changes have been achieved which were directly impacted by the research outputs, as evidenced by Cummins Ramsgate (UK) (5.2): Employees in testing and design functions better understood the importance of sharing their knowledge and were more willing to share with others; Testing and design engineers are more willing to use social media platforms and enterprise-wide frameworks to share knowledge; The knowledge framework was used as a reference model by the corporate IT department to improve company-wide product lifecycle management system, which increased knowledge search efficiency (15%) and accuracy (10%); Design and testing efficiency were increased (15%), Time to market reduced (15%), costs in design and testing saved (10%); Employees were more satisfied, motivated and inspired by learning from others and their knowledge used by others to generate business benefits.

Transforming knowledge sharing, improving design and production efficiency and accuracy, and saving costs at Edwards Ltd

Edwards is a brand of the Vacuum Technique subdivision of Atlas Copco, with over 4,200 employees globally. Edwards has global customers and is a prominent supplier to the semiconductor industry. It manufactures mainly in South Korea, China and Eastern Europe, and its core technologies, global processes and governance are based in the UK. Edwards was the main industrial partner of the research project that first proposed and developed the knowledge framework ( OS1) in 2006. When Gao moved to UoG, the team captured manufacturing capability and maintenance/service knowledge in the company and implemented them based on the product model using standardised features ( OS2). The framework made use of the best practices in machining and inspection knowledge in the company to support its global new product development process. A new product-service system was also implemented which supports maintenance planning and also provides specific service-related requirements/constraints to designers. The company’s engineers and technologists continued to implement and apply the research outputs after the project ended in 2008. After enough time had passed for the benefits to be fully understood and appreciated, the company once again co-funded a new research project (Edwards/HEFCE, 1/9/2019–31/8/2022) to further develop and implement the framework ( OS1) to support designers to select optimised tolerances using real manufacturing capability (inspection data) ( OS2).

Since August 2013, Edward’s Burgess Hill (UK) site reported the following changes directly impacted by the research outputs (5.3): Formation and influence of an Advanced Manufacturing Technology Group; Employees in design, manufacturing and maintenance functions understood the importance of sharing their knowledge and were willing to share with others; The knowledge framework was used as a reference model to improve company-wide product lifecycle management which increased knowledge retrieval efficiency and accuracy; Maintenance/service data and knowledge fed back to designers for improving product quality and reliability; Optimal tolerance selection reduced manufacturing costs; New product development efficiency was increased, project time reduced, and costs saved. The research outputs were also shared across the company’s global operations through their corporate R&D dissemination channels and repositories. The standardised design, manufacturing and service information and knowledge ( OS2) is also shared across their entire corporate operations through the product lifecycle data/knowledge management framework ( OS1).