The lack of data availability often leads to conservative business decisions, which hinders productivity and efficiency.

To understand the health status of aircraft engines, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has partnered with enterprise software company IFS AB to better comprehend engine data. The company now uses cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence and internet of things, to better harness its data, according to Nick Ward (pictured, left), vice president of digital systems at Rolls-Royce, who said that this creates a moment of service meant to maximize travelers’ satisfaction rates.

“I think IFS has always got Rolls-Royce in terms of strategic direction,” Ward stated. “So perhaps a moment of service for Rolls-Royce is every time you’re a passenger, you expect your aircraft to be there ready and depart on time. I think I checked this morning, there’s something like, 600 aircraft in the sky right now with Rolls-Royce power carrying passengers. We’ve had something like a million flights so far this year, 300 million people relying on that moment of service happening.”

Ward and Scott Camarotti (pictured, right), chief revenue officer for aerospace and defense at IFS AB and president of the IFS Foundation, Americas, spoke with theCUBE industry analyst Lisa Martin at IFS Unleashed, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the importance of the “moment of service” and how Rolls-Royce and IFS partner to provide an intelligent engine for enhanced airline maintenance. (* Disclosure below.)

How the intelligent engine comes to play

By using an intelligent engine, Rolls-Royce takes the risk and uncertainty away from airlines because it manages and maintains sophisticated aircraft engines, Ward pointed out. The bottom line of the intelligent engine is data.

“For us to understand that, we then have to have data; we have to understand the state of every engine, where it is, the health of the engine, the life of that engine,” he noted. “And that data flows into a digital platform, the intelligent engine, which is our cloud-based, AI, big data — all of the IoT. So preemptive predictive maintenance is a big part of the intelligent engine.”

Since servitization is deeply rooted in IFS, Camarotti believes this provides the best of breed and best of suite needed to drive business outcomes. Furthermore, it triggers the moment of service, because IFS is focused on lifecycle asset management.

“So one of the things that IFS is always trying to do is … help our customers to realize a moment of service,” he noted. “And that moment of service is really when they found the ability to delight their customers. So whether it’s the ability for a company to use a product, a service or an outcome, they’re driving servitization in a way where they’re shaping their business.”

The business value element is at the heart of the partnership between Rolls-Royce and IFS, according to Camarotti, who said that technology plays an instrumental role in this collaboration.

“One of the things that we’ve always focused on is quantifiable business value,” he pointed out. “The only way a partnership like this could possibly work is if we have a desired business outcome. So the value work that we did in conjunction with Rolls-Royce and really identifying that helped to support the business case that allowed this partnership to really begin and flourish.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IFS Unleashed event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the IFS Unleashed event. Neither IFS AB, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE