CERES :: Browsing by Author "Baguley, Paul"

Browsing by Author "Baguley, Paul"

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Open Access
Analysis of the “make or buy” decision process in a research and development sme
(Cranfield University Press, 2013-09-19) Sarkandi, Mohammad; Baguley, Paul; Tiwari, Ashutosh
Start-up SMEs face various challenges and difficulties during their existence and due to their nature they often lack knowledge and resources to fully address these challenges. Unlike large companies which have access to various resources, those resources are a significant gap for SMEs and the business owners have to rely on their own limited knowledge. The “Make or buy” decision is a critical decision in an organisation. This decision can affect current and future costs, capability and competences in the company and by taking best practice approaches and measures towards the decision making, extensive costs can be potentially saved. In this study, literature best practices have been reviewed. In addition a small company has been studied and the current practices of the company have been compared to academic best practices. The result of the study will be used to improve the “Make or buy” decision process in the company.
Open Access
An autonomous system for maintenance scheduling data-rich complex infrastructure: Fusing the railways' condition, planning and cost
(Elsevier, 2018-02-22) Durazo-Cardenas, Isidro; Starr, Andrew; Turner, Christopher J.; Tiwari, Ashutosh; Kirkwood, Leigh; Bevilacqua, Maurizio; Tsourdos, Antonios; Shehab, Essam; Baguley, Paul; Xu, Yuchun
National railways are typically large and complex systems. Their network infrastructure usually includes extended track sections, bridges, stations and other supporting assets. In recent years, railways have also become a data-rich environment. Railway infrastructure assets have a very long life, but inherently degrade. Interventions are necessary but they can cause lateness, damage and hazards. Every day, thousands of discrete maintenance jobs are scheduled according to time and urgency. Service disruption has a direct economic impact. Planning for maintenance can be complex, expensive and uncertain. Autonomous scheduling of maintenance jobs is essential. The design strategy of a novel integrated system for automatic job scheduling is presented; from concept formulation to the examination of the data to information transitional level interface, and at the decision making level. The underlying architecture configures high-level fusion of technical and business drivers; scheduling optimized intervention plans that factor-in cost impact and added value. A proof of concept demonstrator was developed to validate the system principle and to test algorithm functionality. It employs a dashboard for visualization of the system response and to present key information. Real track incident and inspection datasets were analyzed to raise degradation alarms that initiate the automatic scheduling of maintenance tasks. Optimum scheduling was realized through data analytics and job sequencing heuristic and genetic algorithms, taking into account specific cost & value inputs from comprehensive task cost modelling. Formal face validation was conducted with railway infrastructure specialists and stakeholders. The demonstrator structure was found fit for purpose with logical component relationships, offering further scope for research and commercial exploitation.
Open Access
Challenges in cost analysis of innovative maintenance of distributed high-value assets
(Elsevier, 2014-10-31) Kirkwood, Leigh; Shehab, Essam; Baguley, Paul; Amorim-Melo, P.; Durazo-Cardenas, Isidro
Condition monitoring is an increasingly important activity, but there is often little thought given to how a condition monitoring approach is going to impact the cost of operating a system. This paper seeks to detail the challenges facing such an analysis and outline the likely steps such an analysis will have to take to more completely understand the problem and provide suitable cost analysis. Adding sensors might be a relatively simple task, but those sensors come with associated cost; not only of the sensor, but of the utilities required to power them, the data gathering and processing and the eventual storage of that data for regulatory or other reasons. By adding condition monitoring sensors as a sub- system to the general system an organisation is required to perform maintenance to the new sensors sub-system. Despite these difficulties it is anticipated that for many high value assets applying condition monitoring will enable significant cost savings through elimination of maintenance activities on assets that do not need such cost and effort expended on them. Further savings should be possible through optimisation of maintenance schedules to have essential work completed at more cost efficient times.
Open Access
Cost drivers of integrated maintenance in high-value systems
(Elsevier, 2014-10-31) Amorim-Melo, P.; Shehab, Essam; Kirkwood, Leigh; Baguley, Paul
High value systems are determined by a wide structure, where operations are considered to be one structural component. Nowadays “down-time” as a major impact in the operation costs of any system. To avoid or minimize “down-time” it is essential to match the appropriate maintenance to each failure. Therefore, it is relevant to determine the cost drivers of integrated maintenance in any system, in order to minimize the overall cost. It is common to use Value Driven Maintenance (VDM) to capture the cost drivers in maintenance. VDM is a methodology which relies in four distinct areas: Asset Utilization; Resource Allocation; Control Cost and Health and Safety and Environment. Within each category it is possible to allocate different cost drivers, building a framework for each system studied. The aim of this paper is to categorize the cost drivers of rail infrastructure networks, associating them with the maintenance preformed for each case. Furthermore, analysis of which part of the track falls under each VDM category as well as the general failure causes and effects will be included in the framework presented. Finally relating the maintenance type for each effect will provide the necessary inputs towards a cost model structure. The benefit of achieving a successful model will be the optimization of the cost in integrated maintenance of the rail infrastructure.
Open Access
Cost of Physical Vehicle Crash Testing
(2008-12-31T00:00:00Z) Baguley, Paul; Roy, Rajkumar; Watson, James W.; Curran, Richard; Chou, Shuo-Yan; Trappey, Amy J. C
The automotive safety-testing environment currently deploys virtual methods and physical crash testing for new product development and validation in safety testing legislation. Cost benefit analysis of crash testing is considered here by estimating the cost of physical crash testing. This has been achieved via the compilation of detailed process maps and AS-IS analyses of the current physical testing procedures. This leads on to detailed work and cost breakdown structures used in the comparative analysis of cost drivers. The consideration of cost drivers at several stages of the New Product Development process aids Concurrent Engineering. This research considers front and side impact only.
Open Access
A cost-benefit forecasting framework for assessment of advanced manufacturing technology development
(Cranfield University, 2014-05) Jones, Mark Benjamin; Webb, Phil; Baguley, Paul
Development of new Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) for the aerospace industry is critical to enhance the manufacture and assembly of aerospace products. These novel AMTs require high development cost, specialist resource capabilities, have long development periods, high technological risks and lengthy payback durations. This forms an industry reluctance to fund the initial AMT development stages, impacting on their success within an ever increasingly competitive environment. Selection of suitable AMTs for development is typically performed by managers who make little reference to estimating the non-recurring development effort in resources and hardware cost. In addition, the performance at the conceptual stage is predicted using expert opinion, consisting of subjective and inaccurate outputs. AMTs selected are then submerged into development research and heavily invested in, with incorrect selections having a detrimental impact on the business. A detailed study of the UK aerospace manufacturing industry corroborated these findings and revealed a requirement for a new process map to resolve the problem of managing AMT developments at the conceptual stages. This process map defined the final research protocol, forming the requirement for a Cost-Benefit Forecasting Framework. The framework improves the decision making process to select the most suitable AMTs for development, from concept to full scale demonstration. Cost is the first element and is capable of estimating the AMT development effort in person-hours and cost of hardware using two parametric cost models. Benefit is the second element and forecasts the AMT tangible and intangible performance. The framework plots these quantified cost-benefit parameters and is capable of presenting development value advice for a diverse range of AMTs with varied applications. A detailed case study is presented evaluating a total of 23 novel aerospace AMTs verifying the capability and high accuracy of the framework within a large aerospace manufacturing organisation. Further validation is provided by quantifying the responses from 10 AMT development experts, after utilising the methodology within an industrial setting. The results show that quantifying the cost-benefit parameters provides manufacturing research and technology with the ability to select AMTs that provide the best value to a business.
Open Access
A customised lean model for a Chinese aerospace OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
(Cranfield University, 2011-04) Li, Chao; Baguley, Paul; Tiwari, Ashutosh
The aim of this research is to introduce Lean Thinking in a systematic and cost effective way; moreover, it is to bring Lean Principles and apply Lean Tools to the new aerospace companies. In particular the research will develop a customised Lean manufacturing model. The following objectives will be achieved during the research. 1); Investigate the principal features of Lean Thinking, and identify state of the art in Lean manufacturing implementation. 2); Identify the current situation of a specific Chinese aerospace company and the requirements needed in becoming Lean. 3); Develop a customised Lean model for applying Lean into a new Chinese aerospace company. 4); Validate the Lean manufacturing model by experts in the company and university. The Chinese traditional thinking is different from lean think. Therefore, to implement Lean in China will face some distinct barriers. The author attempts to resolve these problems through a customised lean model. According to the literature review and researcher‘s knowledge, there is no paper developing a model linking to the barriers of lean implementation in Chinese manufacturing. Therefore, the author will attempt to fill in this gap during the research. The questionnaire and assessment tool will be used to collect information from the company. Best practices will help to establish the structure of the model. However, in China, most companies implement lean through copying examples from the United States, UK and other Western countries without combining their current situation and culture. The contribution of this research is to develop a model to link Chinese barriers and a company‘s situation for lean implementation. Finally, this model will be validated by company and academic experts. The first validation is based on the sponsoring company. Other validations are achieved by academic experts and industrial expert.
Open Access
Design and Manufacturing Uncertainties in Cost Estimating within the Bid Process: Results from an Industry Survey
(Cranfield University Press, 2009-03-31) Parekh, S.; Roy, Rajkumar; Baguley, Paul; Rajkumar Roy; Essam Shehab
This paper discusses the issues of the bidding process with emphasis on the design and manufacturing uncertainties that can occur. The context of the paper is within manufacturing companies and in particular within the Defence sector. The paper presents the bidding process of a large Manufacturing company and details the main challenges and uncertainties that may occur. It also discusses the methods that are currently used to tackle uncertainty. The results of an industry survey compare the practices of other manufacturing companies and highlight the challenges at the bidding stage. The paper concludes that the development of an appropriate framework is necessary in order to effectively manage uncertainty at the bid stage.
Open Access
Development of a cost reduction methodology for start-up SMES developing a novel product.
(2017-07) Sarkandi, Mohammad Ali; Baguley, Paul; Tiwari, Ashutosh
This thesis is concerned with identifying cost engineering requirements of start-up SMEs in the manufacturing sector and developing a solution to address a number of their major requirements. The focus of the thesis is on cost reduction at the product development stage of a novel product. The aim of the thesis is to develop a cost reduction framework for SMEs developing a novel product in order to transfer necessary cost engineering knowledge to an SME in a structured way. A literature review has been completed to identify potential areas for cost reduction and build an understanding of SMEs’ characteristics in cost engineering requirements. The review confirmed the finding that SMEs lack cost engineering knowledge. Therefore, cost reduction best practices were identified through literature review and analysed for relevance for SMEs. Collaborating with a start-up SME developing a novel product helped to identify SMEs cost engineering requirements. By close observation and participation of the SME, areas lacking knowledge were identified. In addition, potential cost reduction opportunities were examined. Due to the nature of cost reduction activities, it was required to study day to day activities of the collaborating company and become familiarised with development, production and business plans for the product. The identification of the requirements and development of the AS IS model of the SME helped to build an understanding of characteristics and requirements of start-up SMEs. Based on these the cost reduction framework was developed. The framework includes best practice tools and methods which comply with start-up SMEs’ characteristics. Where a suitable method could not be identified, the method was developed in this research to address their requirements. The framework was implemented in the collaborating company and was validated by presenting the results to internal and external experts from industry and academia. Keywords: Start-up SME, Cost Engineering, Manufacturing, Novel product, production cost.
Open Access
Development of a life cycle cost estimating framework for oil refineries
(Cranfield University, 2011-09) Okafor, Okechukwu Peter; Baguley, Paul; Roy, Rajkumar
This study is concerned with the understanding of some vital features of various life cycle costing methodologies and tools. Integrating these features with the refinery technical processes would assist in the development of a life cycle costing framework for oil refineries. The aim of this research is to develop a comprehensive life cycle cost estimating framework for the evaluation of not only the total cost and system effectiveness of new refineries but also the revamping, and maintenance of the existing refineries. Several conceptual life cycle costing models relating to various life cycle stages were reviewed, and their attachment to specific life cycle activities assessed. Furthermore, the literature review and the industry survey identified that a vital requirement for the development of a life cycle costing framework is the establishment of a structured conceptual life cycle costing model and a cost breakdown structure that will depict major cost categories and cost elements in the LCC framework. Consequently, a standard conceptual life cycle costing model and its cost breakdown structure were developed and integrated into a proposed LCC framework for oil refineries. A combination of the literature review findings and industry survey were also used to ascertain the current life cycle costing practice. It was identified that there is a lack of a practical framework to compare two or more options of refinery schemes for system effectiveness. This led to the development of a novel life cycle cost estimating framework that could be used in the evaluation of the total cost and system effectiveness of a new refinery when there is no performance data. Finally, the framework’s applicability and effectiveness was demonstrated through its application on a case study. The validation of the proposed framework and the cost estimates development within the case study was successfully carried out by experts from the industry and academia. Consequent upon the research findings, key areas for future work were identified. The implementation of the findings of this research within the industry could provide the much needed long-term benefit that comes with the formalisation of life cycle costing practice.
Open Access
Development of a whole life cycle cost model for electrification options on the UK rail system
(Elsevier, 2016-06-13) Kirkwood, Leigh; Giuntini, L.; Baguley, Paul
Projects to deliver Overhead Line Equipment (OLE) electrification on the UK rail infrastructure system presents technical challenges which the rail industry in Britain have not traditionally had to consider. Whole Life Cycle assessment provides decision makers with cost estimates for the installation phase and over the entire service life of the system, including disposal. The OLE projects face a particular problem when analysing the best option for overbridges. Much of the rail infrastructure has not traditionally had to consider overhead clearances and therefore many of the bridges are only a little taller than the rolling stock. In addition to the difficulties in assessing the Life-Cycle costs of assets that have historically been used in very limited scales, the Whole Life Cycle assessment must consider the various engineering options that are available for projects. The three competing options (bridge rebuild, track lowering, reduced clearance) are all going to have very different capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX) costs. This work presents a model created to predict these costs over the anticipated assessment period. The developed model predicts capital expenditures, maintenance and service disruption costs and links them to the three major assets options involved in OLE underbridges.
Open Access
A framework for whole lifecycle cost of long-term digital preservation
(2017-03) Badawy, Mohammed Abdel Salam Abdel Azim; Shehab, Essam; Baguley, Paul
Digital preservation, also known as digital curation, is the active management of digital information, over time, to ensure its accessibility and usability. Digital preservation is nowadays an active area of research, for many reasons: the rapid evolution of technology, which also results in the rapid obsolescence of old technologies; degradation of physical records; constantly increasing volumes of digital information and, importantly, the fact that it has started to become a legal obligation in many countries. This research project aims to develop an innovative framework estimate costs of long term digital preservation. The framework can lead to generating a cost model that quantifies costs within different business sectors, while capturing the impact of obsolescence and uncertainties on predicted cost. Case studies from financial, healthcare and clinical trials sectors are used to prove the framework concept. Those sectors were chosen because between them they share all file types that are required to be preserved and all are either obliged by European or local laws, e.g. EU Data Retention Directive (2006/24/EC) and/or UK Data Retention Regulations 2014 No. 2042, or interested in preserving their digital assets. The framework comprises of three phases: assessing digital preservation activities, cost analysis and expansion and cost estimation. The framework has integrated two processes that will enable the user to reach a more accurate cost estimate; a process for identifying uncertainties with digital preservation activities and a cost modelling process. In the framework cloud computing was used as an example for storage and compute technologies. Combining different research methodology techniques was used in this research project. Starting with conducting a thorough literature review covering digital preservation and cost modelling. Following the literature review; is a combination qualitative and quantitative approaches, using semi-structured interview technique to collect data from industry experts. Industry experts were chosen from companies, firms and government bodies working with or researching digital preservation. Finalising with validating results by real-life case studies from businesses in selected sectors and experts’ verdict. Comparing the output of the framework to real-life case studies, demonstrated how companies/firms, who target to preserve their digital assets, can utilise it to predict accurately future costs for undertaking such investment. By applying industrially-based cost modelling approaches the framework generates a cost model that predicts single-point and three-points cost estimates, an obsolescence taxonomy, uncertainties identification process and quantifying uncertainties and obsolescence impact on cost prediction. Providing decision makers with all the framework outputs, will provide them with quantifiable information about their future investment, while remaining clear to understand and easy to amend. This makes the framework provide long-term total cost prediction solution for digital preservation to firms; helping, guiding and adding insight into digital preservation added value.
Open Access
Industry survey review of obsolescence management strategies in performance based contracts
(Cranfield University Press, 2013-09-19) Cabañas, Alfonso; Baguley, Paul; Roy, Rajkumar
This research study has been developed through a cross sectorial benchmarking survey and represents the development of a descriptive framework from a management strategy perspective. The survey is based on face to face interviews and a questionnaire about obsolescence and availability in defence and non defence sectors. The high research elements reported are related to the set of obsolescence factors and unavailability drivers identified, the availability modelling methodologies studied, and the categorization of obsolescence management strategies from suppliers to customer perspective reported. The main results presented in this research are the evolution of the state of the art of the availability modelling techniques, the justification of the lack of availability predictive tools based on a list of typical commercial tools applied in the industry today and the positive and negative outcomes of using commercial of the shelf (COTS) as design criteria in long life systems.
Open Access
Integration of cost-risk assessment of denial of service within an intelligent maintenance system
(Elsevier, 2016-06-13) Carlander, L.; Kirkwood, Leigh; Shehab, Essam; Baguley, Paul; Durazo-Cardenas, Isidro
As organisations become richer in data the function of asset management will have to increasingly use intelligent systems to control condition monitoring systems and organise maintenance. In the future the UK rail industry is anticipating having to optimize capacity by running trains closer to each other. In this situation maintenance becomes extremely problematic as within such a high-performance network a relatively minor fault will impact more trains and passengers; such denial of service causes reputational damage for the industry and causes fines to be levied against the infrastructure owner, Network Rail. Intelligent systems used to control condition monitoring systems will need to optimize for several factors; optimization for minimizing denial of service will be one such factor. With schedules anticipated to be increasingly complicated detailed estimation methods will be extremely difficult to implement. Cost prediction of maintenance activities tend to be expert driven and require extensive details, making automation of such an activity difficult. Therefore a stochastic process will be needed to approach the problem of predicting the denial of service arising from any required maintenance. Good uncertainty modelling will help to increase the confidence of estimates. This paper seeks to detail the challenges that the UK Railway industry face with regards to cost modelling of maintenance activities and outline an example of a suitable cost model for quantifying cost uncertainty. The proposed uncertainty quantification is based on historical cost data and interpretation of its statistical distributions. These estimates are then integrated in a cost model to obtain accurate uncertainty measurements of outputs through Monte-Carlo simulation methods. An additional criteria of the model was that it be suitable for integration into an existing prototype integrated intelligent maintenance system. It is anticipated that applying an integrated maintenance management system will apply significant downward pressure on maintenance budgets and reduce denial of service. Accurate cost estimation is therefore of great importance if anticipated cost efficiencies are to be achieved. While the rail industry has been the focus of this work, other industries have been considered and it is anticipated that the approach will be applicable to many other organisations across several asset management intensive industries
Open Access
Maintenance applications of augmented reality for the Chinese aerospace industry
(Cranfield University, 2011-12) Ou, Peng; Tiwari, Ashutosh; Baguley, Paul
Since augmented reality has not reached full maturity in use, it is not widely adopted within the aerospace industry. According to the literature review, minimal research efforts have been conducted to assess the cost-benefit or cost- effectiveness of augmented reality so far. Moreover, to the best of researcher’s knowledge, no research has been carried out to develop a systematic process for selecting and implementing augmented reality within the Chinese aerospace industry. This research will therefore aim to bridge the gaps. The primary aim of this research is to develop a process for selecting and implementing augmented reality to support maintenance within an aerospace company. The following objectives will be fulfilled in this research: 1) Identify different types of AR technologies and their strengths and weaknesses for maintenance; 2) Perform cost-benefit analysis for augmented reality within the maintenance industry; 3) Develop a process for selecting and implementing augmented reality in a range of activities. Data analysis and a questionnaire were employed to achieve these objectives. In the proposed cost benefits analysis framework, the costs of implementing an augmented reality system, both direct and indirect benefits, and the costs incurred by risks have been introduced. A proposed equation on the basis of above variables has been adopted to determine the feasibility of implementing an augmented reality system in terms of money. The proposed implementation framework has introduced a process which can be followed to develop a new augmented reality system. A set of criteria have been established for selecting augmented reality technologies. The two frameworks have been applied to a developed scenario and validated by experts from Cranfield University, as well as engineers from an aerospace company.
Open Access
Modelling long term digital preservation costs: a scientific data case study
(Cranfield University Press, 2013-09-19) Shehab, Essam; Lefort, Alice; Badawy, Mohamed; Baguley, Paul; Turner, Christopher J.; Wilson, Michael; Conway, Esther
In recent years there has been increasing UK Government pressure on publicly funded researchers to plan the preservation and ensure the accessibility of their data for the long term. A critical challenge in implementing a digital preservation strategy is the estimation of such a programme’s cost. This pa-per presents a case study based on the cost estimation of preserving scientific data produced in the ISIS facility based at The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory UK. The model for cost estimation for long term digital preservation is presented along with an outline of the development and validation activities undertaken as part of this project. The framework and methodology from this research provide an insight into the task of costing long term digital preservation processes, and can potentially be adapted to deliver benefits to other organisa-tions.
Open Access
Operational software maturity: An aerospace industry analysis
(World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2017-09-19) González Muñoz, Raúl; Shehab, Essam; Weinitzke, Martin; Fowler, Chris; Baguley, Paul
Software applications have become crucial to the aerospace industry, providing a wide range of functionalities and capabilities used during the design, manufacturing and support of aircraft. However, as this criticality increases, so too does the risk for business operations when facing a software failure. Hence, there is a need for new methodologies to be developed to support aerospace companies in effectively managing their software portfolios, avoiding the hazards of business disruption and additional costs. This paper aims to provide a definition of operational software maturity, and how this can be used to assess software operational behaviour, as well as a view on the different aspects that drive software maturity within the aerospace industry. The key research question addressed is, how can operational software maturity monitoring assist the aerospace industry in effectively managing large software portfolios? This question has been addressed by conducting an in depth review of current literature, by working closely with aerospace professionals and by running an industry case study within a major aircraft manufacturer. The results are a software maturity model composed of a set of drivers and a prototype tool used for the testing and validation of the research findings. By utilising these methodologies to assess the operational maturity of software applications in aerospace, benefits in maintenance activities and operations disruption avoidance have been observed, supporting business cases for system improvement. Paper originally presented at ICSM 2017 : 19th International Conference on Software Maintenance, 18-19 September 2017, Rome, Italy.
Open Access
Software obsolescence drivers in aerospace: An industry analysis
(World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2017-09-19) González Muñoz, Raúl; Shehab, Essam; Weinitzke, Martin; Fowler, Chris; Baguley, Paul
Software applications have become crucial for the aerospace industry, providing a wide range of functionalities and capabilities. However, due to the considerable time difference between aircraft and software life cycles, obsolescence has turned into a major challenge for industry in last decades. This paper aims to provide a view on the different causes of software obsolescence within aerospace industry, as well as a perception on the importance of each of them. The key research question addressed is what drives software obsolescence in the aerospace industry, managing large software application portfolios. This question has been addressed by conducting firstly an in depth review of current literature and secondly by arranging an industry workshop with professionals from aerospace and consulting companies. The result is a set of drivers of software obsolescence, distributed among three different environments and several domains. By incorporating monitoring methodologies to assess those software obsolescence drivers, benefits in maintenance efforts and operations disruption avoidance are expected. Paper originally presented at ICSM 2017 : 19th International Conference on Software Maintenance, 18-19 September 2017, Rome, Italy.
Open Access
TOMCAT: An Obsolescence Management Capability Assessment Framework
(Institute of Physics (IoP), 2013-01-22) Romero Rojo, Francisco Javier; Baguley, Paul; Shaikh, N.; Roy, Rajkumar; Kelly, S.
As the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) moves away from the traditional support contracts to contracting for availability/capability, it is essential that the MoD has confidence in Industry’s capability to manage the risk of obsolescence. For this purpose, it was necessary to develop a set of metrics to demonstrate it. The eight key elements identified are as follows: obsolescence management governance; supplier; design for obsolescence; risk assessment; obsolescence monitoring; communication; and obsolescence resolution process. Each one was assessed, ranked, and was further broken down into major constituents. They formed the basis of the final 25 metrics, which were then ranked and weighted accordingly. These metrics are embedded into the Total Obsolescence Management Capability Assessment Tool (TOMCAT), which provides a mean for contractors to perform self-assessment and for the MoD to set obsolescence management capability improvement targets. This tool was subjected to rigorous industry scrutiny through different means, including workshops and piloting sessions, which led to refining the TOMCAT tool and the way in which the metrics are formulated. This tool has been developed as a web based application. The MoD is planning to standardise its usage by incorporating it to the obsolescence management policy for defence contracting.
Open Access
Towards a framework for predicting whole life-cycle cost for long-term digital preservation
(Cranfield University Press, 2013-09-19) Badawy, Mohamed; Sanya, Isaac; Shehab, Essam; Baguley, Paul
Estimating the costs for the whole lifecycle of long-term digital preservation (LTDP) activities ena-bles decision makers to choose carefully what data to preserve, duration of preservation and type of preservation techniques best applied for their information. To address this need, a framework is de-veloped to generate a cost model that will estimate costs for long-term digital preservation activities using storage in the cloud and taking into consideration the impact of mitigating uncertainties, espe-cially obsolescence issues on future costs. This cost estimating framework is part of the European pro-ject entitled ‘Enabling kNowledge Sustainability Usability and Recovery for Economic value’ which aims to provide a total long-term digital preservation solution for companies and public sector organi-sations interested in keeping their digital information alive for the long-term within the healthcare, fi-nancial and the clinical trials business sectors.