University of the West of England Home Page - Peter Hale Home Page - SEEDS Site Map SEEDS Page - Text Only Site Map

Systems Engineering Estimation & Decision Support

The SEEDS team is part of the Aerospace Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) - http://www.uwe.ac.uk/cems/research/centres/amrc.html. Our expertise is in working with organisations mainly those involved in manufacturing or distribution of products. We apply techniques for managing, categorising and visualising information to support costing of complex products and managing of supply chains.

Our main area of research and consultancy is that of software techniques for analysing and reporting on the costs involved in design and manufacture of products, and integrating such tools into the infrastructure that exists in organisations.

We are involved in cost modelling solutions, and have experience of working with aerospace and other organisations. We have been working with Rolls-Royce aerospace, Airbus, a large wholesaler and Koala Publishing. Research projects have involved providing means to visualise cost information generated by estimation packages, essential for cost estimation. Visualisation of the cost information permits in depth analysis so as to locate high cost and risk. This is aided by our knowledge of Semantic Web technologies. The Semantic Web is an approach invented by Tim Berners-Lee (a UK physicist at the time), for information sharing and retrieval. This technology is more affordable than traditional software development and enables integration of software systems.

We provide collaboration and consultancy through Knowledge West with Bath University and a cost modelling collaboration with Southampton University and companies including Rolls-Royce. We also provide continuous professional development training and education with AMRC, and Bristol University.

A further project, the Design Analysis tool for Unit-cost Modelling project (DATUM), applies the ICES technology using commercial, web based tools. We are working to enable users to program by means of our Semantic Web research and consultancy. To achieve this we are using a systematic computer independent approach to our Decision Support and costing modelling.

Case Studies

The DATUM (Design Analysis Tool for Unit cost Modelling) project involving UWE and Southampton Universities and sponsored by Rolls-Royce was a program of design to cost research. The role of cost modeling within the design process for the development of a civil gas turbine engine was investigated. The novel application of a generic financial modeling tool to an engineering cost estimating problem was demonstrated. The tool was used to capture and disseminate costing knowledge and develop cost models.

Contact Details

SEEDS Web site - http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/amrc/seeds/

Tel: +44 (0)117 32 82474

+44 (0)117 32 83820