Abstract: For manufacturers of complex engineering equipment, the focus on service and achieving outcomes for customers is the key to growth. Yet, the capability to provide service for complex engineered products is less understood.
Taking a trans-disciplinary approach, Complex Engineering Service Systems covers various aspects of service in complex engineering systems, with perspectives from engineering, management, design, operations research, strategy, marketing and operations management that are relevant to different disciplines, organisation functions, and geographic locations. The focus is on the many facets of complex engineering service systems around a core integrative framework of three value transformations â that of material/equipment, information and people.
Complex Engineering Service Systems is the outcome of the EPSRC/BAE Systems S4T (Service Support Solutions: Strategy and Transition) research programme of 10 universities and 27 researchers, which examined how high-value manufacturers of complex engineering products adapt to a multi-partnered environment to design and deliver value in a service system.
Complex Engineering Service Systems aims to be the main source of knowledge for academics and professionals in the research and practice of contracting, managing, designing, leading, and delivering complex engineering service systems. The book takes a value-based approach to integrating equipment and human factors into a total service provision. In doing so, it aims to advance the field of service systems and engineering.
Abstract: Engineering design, despite its technical mechanical and mathematical foundations, is heavily informational. Many authors have used information as the focus of their research; in contrast, our study examined both information needs and document usage by engineers. After reviewing the design decisions behind the diary study; we report on the analysis of the data. We also used the data to generate new âdocument useâ scenarios, and âproof of conceptâ test of a related software system. As with all research methods, diary studies have a number of strengths and weaknesses so we also provide some reï¬ections on the use of diary studies as a method for examining the engineerâs use of documents in the engineering domain.
Abstract: There has been an increase in the relevance of and interest in services and services research. There is a acknowledgement that the emerging ï¬eld of services science will need to draw on multiple disciplines and practices. There is a growing body of work from HumanâComputer Interaction (HCI) researchers and practitioners that consider services, but there has been limited interaction between service researchers and HCI. We argue that HCI can provide two major elements of interest to service science: (1) the user centred mindset and techniques; and (2) concepts and frameworks applicable to understanding the nature of services. This second option is of major concern in this paper, where we consider Longâs work (undertaken with John Dowell) on a Conception for HCI. The conception stands as an important antecedent to our own work on a framework that: (a) relates the various strands of servicer research; and (b) can be used to provide high-level integrative models of service systems. Core concepts of the UCL Conception such as domain, task, and structures and behaviours partially help to relate systematically different streams of services research, and provide richer descriptions of them. However, if the UCL Conception is moved towards services additional issues and challenges arise. For example, the kinds of domain changes that are made in services differ; services exist in a wider environment; and that effectiveness judgements are dependent on values. We explore these issues and provide reï¬ections on the status of HCI and Service Science.
Abstract: Cross-disciplinary research programmes often entail an integrative goal, that is, to integrate theory and findings from the multiple disciplines involved in the research. Services research has been frequently described as existing in silos. Little has been put forwards towards remedying this beyond the view that one theoretical perspective could dominate the discipline. This paper presents a framework for systematically relating streams services research.
Working from the view that services are consistently defined as activities, rather than objects or artefacts the concepts of the framework are drawn from Activity Modelling approaches (e.g. Task Analysis, Domain/Process modelling, and Soft Systems).
We compare the framework against a range of approaches. We cover techniques (Service Blueprinting, Enterprise Imaging), and some Service Evaluation approaches; and theories/frameworks (the Service-Dominant Logic; Service Blueprinting; the IHIP characteristics (Intangibility, Heterogeneity, Inseparability, and Perishability); Product-Service Systems; and the Unified Service Theory).
Abstract: Abstract: Purpose â The purpose of this paper is to highlight the difficulty of applying faceted classification outside of library contexts and also to indicate that faceted approaches are poorly expressed to non-experts.
Design/methodology/approach â The faceted approach is being applied outside of its âhomeâ community, with mixed results. The approach is based in part on examination of a broad base of literature and in part on results and reflections on a case study applying faceted notions to âreal worldâ engineering documentation.
Findings â The paper comes across a number of pragmatic and theoretical issues namely: differing interpretations of the facet notion; confusion between faceted analysis and faceted classification; lack of methodological guidance; the use of simplistic domains as exemplars; description verses analysis; facet recognition is unproblematic; and is the process purely top-down or bottom-up.
Research limitations/implications â That facet analysis is not inherently associated with a particular epistemology; that greater guidance about the derivation is needed, that greater realism is needed when teaching faceted approaches.
Practical implications â Experiences of applying faceted classifications are presented that can be drawn upon to guide future work in the area.
Originality/value â No previous work has reflected on the actual empirical experience used to create a faceted description, especially with reference to engineering documents.
Abstract: Vast quantities of electronic information are generated and stored such that engineers may later retrieve, assimilate and ultimately utilise such information during their daily activities. Where term-based querying relies upon suitable query formulation, browsing of pre-organised information allows the information to be displayed against a descriptive structure. Traditional classification schemes generally cater for certain viewpoints, however faceted schemes concurrently describe multiple perspectives. The literature specifying the creation of such schemata is sparse, and distributed across different domains and eras. This paper reviews this literature and proposes a means by which the underlying theory may be more readily applied within engineering design.
Notes: Information management, Knowledge management, Faceted classification
Abstract: Information and knowledge retrieval has been recognized as a key issue in engineering design. A great deal of design-related information used and generated within engineering companies is formally recorded in documents. These documents become more useful if they are structured in a consistent way so that they can be retrieved and their contents accessed more effectively. Achieving useful structure in electronic documents relies on embedding some sort of mark-up or coding that is computer-understandable. Manual mark-up is time-consuming and costly. This paper proposes a knowledge engineering approach to automatic document mark-up employing XML (the eXtensible Mark-up Language) to âtagâ explicitly the structural information. The focus here is on long and complex engineering documents. A three-level model is explored to achieve automatic semantic mark-up using a set of document decomposition schemes. The model includes a strategic level which identifies document typographical features based on such things as styles, inference or templates; a tactical level to define the rules to realize semantic mark-up according to the document features; and an operational level to perform the computational implementation of the mark-up rules. By making document structure explicit, information retrieval can be made more focused by returning not just whole documents but the document components that are most relevant or of most interest to the engineering designer, and information relevant to the designerâs need both with respect to document structure and content, not content alone. In addition, interpretation of useful structure by the human user can be hardwired into documents, which allows us to move closer to true semantic level retrieval.
Abstract: Engineers often need to look for the right pieces of information by sifting through long engineering documents. It is a very tiring and time-consuming job. To address this issue, researchers are increasingly devoting their attention to new ways to help information users, including engineers, to access and retrieve document content. The research reported in this paper explores how to use the key technologies of document decomposition (study of document structure), document mark-up (with EXtensible Mark-up Language (XML), HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML), and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)), and a facetted classification mechanism. Document content extraction is implemented via computer programming (with Java). An Engineering Document Content Management System (EDCMS) developed in this research demonstrates that as information providers we can make document content in a more accessible manner for information users including engineers.
The main features of the EDCMS system are
1) EDCMS is a system that enables users, especially engineers, to access and retrieve information at content rather than document level. In other words, it provides the right pieces of information that answer specific questions so that engineers donât need to waste time sifting through the whole document to obtain the required piece of information.
2) Users can use the EDCMS via both the data and metadata of a document to access engineering document content.
3) Users can use the EDCMS to access and retrieve content objects, i.e. text, images and graphics (including engineering drawings) via multiple views and at different granularities based on decomposition schemes.
Experiments with the EDCMS have been conducted on semi-structured documents, a textbook of CADCAM, and a set of project posters in the Engineering Design domain. Experimental results show that the system provides information users with a powerful solution to access document content.
Abstract: Retrieval of document fragments has a great potential for application in engineering information management. Frequently engineers have neither the time nor inclination to sift through long documents for small pieces of useful information. Yet it is frequently in the form of one or more long documents that the information that they seek is presented. Supporting the delivery of the right information, in the right format and in the right quantity motivates the search for better ways of handling document sub-components or fragments. Document fragment retrieval can be facilitated using modern computational technologies. This paper proposes a novel framework for information access utilising state-of-the-art computational technologies and introducing the use of multiple document structure views through decomposition schemes. The framework integrates document structure study, mark-up technologies, automated fragment extraction, faceted classification and a document navigation mechanism to achieve the target of retrieval of specific document fragments using precise, complex queries. These disparate elements have been brought together in an exploratory Engineering Document Content Management System (EDCMS). Using this, investigations using representative engineering documents have shown that information users can access and retrieve document content â at fragment level rather than at document level â both through data in a document and document metadata, through different perspectives and at different granularities, and simultaneously across multiple documents as well as within a single document.
Abstract: Developed forms of task analysis allow designers to focus on both utility and usability issues in the development of interactive work systems. The models they generate represent aspects of the human, computer and domain elements of an interactive work system. Many interactive work systems are embedded in an organisational context. Pressure for changes are present in this context and provide impetus to stakeholders to change work tasks and the supporting tools. Interactive work systems also provide evolutionary pressures of their own, changing the very task they were designed to support. One approach to coping with change has been to evolve interactive work systems. Currently none of these techniques place focus on the performance of tasks as central, and consideration of usability is minimal. However, an evolutionary design approach forces an evolutionary experience upon users, and we cannot be sure whether this approach enhances the user's experience or degrades their performance. Given the strength of task analysis it is likely that it will be applied within evolutionary contexts. Yet, little work has been undertaken to examine whether its role will, or could be different. We ask how we can move task analysis towards being used in a principled manner in the evolution of interactive work systems. This paper examines a number of features of the approach called task knowledge structures that may be useful in evolving interactive work systems. We look at tasks and their representativeness, roles, goals, objects (their attributes, relationships, typicality and centrality) and actions. We present a developing framework for examining other task analysis approaches for their utility in supporting interactive work systems evolution. Finally, we discuss future work within the area of applying task analysis in the evolution of interactive work systems.
Abstract: The chapter is concerned with presenting an approach to the high-level and integrative modelling of service systems. The challenge of such an approach is to provide a high-level view, without overloading the representation with too many theoretical concepts, or too much detail of the final implementations of a service system. The concern is with feasible or desired configurations and the potential trade-offs implied by specific configurations; rather than an optimised specific implementation.
Abstract: Interdisciplinary Services research programmes commonly entail an integrative goal, that is, to integrate theory & findings from the multiple disciplines involved. Services research has been frequently described as existing in silos, but little has been put forwards towards remedying this. This paper presents a framework for systematically relating different kinds of Services research by offering a set of sensitising concepts. Working from the view that services are consistently defined as activities, rather than objects or artefacts the concepts of the framework are drawn from Activity Modelling approaches, such as Task Analysis, Domain & Process modelling, & Soft Systems Methodology.
Abstract: This paperâs concern is with the development of a classification of Service Design approaches such as Functional Products, Product-Service Systems, and perspectives such as Service as Experience and the Service Dominant Logic. The classification achieves this by focusing on the different Service Design Foci; Activities; Phases; Perspectives; and Participation levels in the different approaches to Service Design. In turn, four contemporary methods are compared against the classification (MePSS, Sakao and Shimomuraâs Methodology, Morelliâs Methodology and the dCOR).
Abstract: This paper discusses engineering document fragment mark-up supported by the use of the eXstensible Stylesheet Language â Formatting Objects (XLS-FO). XLS-FO can be used to convert the native format repre-sentation of such documents as Word, Excel and PDF into XML. Once in XML, documents fragments can be retrieved at will in response to a search query. In the paper the process of a document fragment retrieval â based on the authorsâ decomposition scheme approach â has been modelled and the issue of converting documents into XML addressed. Additionally, the use of document templates is discussed as a means of ensuring that the transformed XML documents are compliant with the decomposition schemes. Automating the reformatting of documents into XML and the use of templates helps make implementation of a document-fragment approach to retrieval more resource efficient, so making its adoption in industry more practicable.
Abstract: Much information and knowledge work (with and without information technology) can be characterised as multitasking and interrupt driven. A whole host of characterisations and buzzwords imply an increase in the number of roles, tasks/activities, IT artefacts, interruptions and exceptions that people have to deal with. This provides a challenge for Task Analysis approaches as they have historically focussed around single tasks and users.A preliminary version of a composite modelling approach (the Composite Multitasking Model) is presented that draws from approaches that model task, events, interruptions, exceptions and the temporal aspects of tasks. As well consideration of how information about multiple tasks is elicited, we apply the approach to the modelling of data from our own studies.
Abstract: It is accepted that changes in technology, work practices and the general socio-economic environment affect the way we plan and perform tasks. Support, opportunity and pressure for people to 'multitask' has increased. We cannot assume that because an IT is designed well for a single-user single-task perspective, that it will effectively support multitasking. Some work has been undertaken into understanding these phenomena in a HCI context, but with little permeation into mainstream HCI methods. This paper provides an interim report into work into multiple task phenomena within the Task Knowledge Structures task analysis approach.
Abstract: This paperâs concern is with the exploration of one aspect of multitasking, namely the grouping of tasks. Our own studies reported in brief within this paper and related work suggests that groupings of tasks are both possible, desirable, and occur. These grouping are behaviours that support the creation of âsets of tasksâ by some form of commonality. This commonality may refer to the tool or transformation or to facets of context such as locations or participants. In line with the assertion that task structure is a joint reflection of how a task is represented in memory and how a task is carried out in the world this paper seeks to understand the wider ramifications of such task / subtask groupings. We outline two case studies that provide supporting evidence of task groupings. From this we extract four forms of grouping that are scoped in relations to locations, deadlines, participants and roles.
Abstract: Within organisations interactive systems are subject to pressures for change that are predominantly evolutionary in nature. The evolution of interactive systems is generally termed maintenance. Traditionally maintenance soaks up large portions of interactive systems budgets. Despite the resources given over to maintenance there is little evidence that any consideration of usability issues takes place in this development stage. This paper is concerned with ramifications of applying four contemporary usability evaluation methods in scenarios where interactive systems are evolving. The four specific methods we examine are Heuristic Evaluation, the Cognitive Walkthrough, Interacting Cognitive Subsystems and Co-operative Evaluation.
