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Rolls-Royce R&T Director's Creativity Award

Rolls-Royce R&T Director's Creativity Award

Software that Dr Rob Bracewell developed as part of his research into design rationale capture has just received Rolls-Royce's Research & Technology Director's Creativity Award for 2004.

Rolls-Royce R&T Director's Creativity Award 2004

Rob along with Professor Ken Wallace, who directs the Department's University Technology Partnership for Design, and those responsible for introducing the software in Rolls-Royce, Mr David Knott, Dr Michael Moss and Mr Jim Wickerson, received the award from Colin Smith, Director of Research and Technology at a recent ceremony in Derby.

The software, known as the Design Rationale editor (DRed), is a graphical tool that helps designers work logically through their designs and provides a simple means for them to record their rationale. DRed is rapidly being adopted within Rolls-Royce and is already improving decision making and communication - as well as reducing the need for lengthy reports. For example, the use of DRed is now mandatory for all design scheme reviews on Rolls-Royce's JSF F135 project.

Feedback from Rolls-Royce's designers at Bristol, Derby and Montreal indicates that DRed provides the anticipated benefits. Having been accepted by the company's Design Practices Committee, DRed is now incorporated into their standard Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tool set. In the longer term, it is hoped that the use of DRed will improve the transfer of design knowledge across business sectors and between successive projects.

The University Technology Partnership for Design (UTP) is sponsored by Rolls-Royce and BAE SYSTEMS and includes research teams at the Universities of Cambridge, Sheffield and Southampton. The aim of the UTP is to undertake world-class research to help the two companies to improve their design processes. The Cambridge section of the UTP, which is part of the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre (EDC), focuses on Engineering Knowledge Management.

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