TCS, Rolls Royce to jointly harness data for improved engines

British engine maker is among the top five clients of TCS in UK

Tata Consultancy Services says it will jointly work with Rolls Royce to push the British engine maker's "Digital First" vision of using data to improve maintenance of its engines that power planes and ships, focus on compliance and safety and also design newer engines in the future.
 

TCS will use its in-house "connected universe platform" to harness data from the sensors on Rolls Royce engines, analyse and help identify problems and look for solutions that help to cut costs and improve efficiency. The solution is offered as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that helps in deploying internet of things (IoT) applications faster.

The British engine maker is among the top five clients of TCS in the United Kingdom. Both firms did not disclose the value of the deal, which will be over five years.

Rolls Royce, whose engines power passenger planes, fighter aircraft and ships on high seas, is looking at using the data it has generated so far to build better and more efficient engines. It already conducts real-time monitoring of engines on passenger planes and collects an enormous amount of data that can be harnessed in future.

TCS says it is already working with several of its industrial clients, who are already using the platform, to cut costs, improve efficiency and help them turn their business profitable. "The margins would be higher than traditional services," said Milind Lakkad, executive vice president and global head for manufacturing at TCS, while adding: "There is lot of automation and less dependence on people"

Rolls Royce is not the first engine maker to harness Indian talent in newer areas such as data analytics and digital. Its global rivals Honeywell and General Electric, have set up centres in Bengaluru with engineers and data scientists building models to identify gaps and work on their next generation engines.

"The value we provide is more impactful than just costs," said TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan.

"This will allow us to take advantage of fast-paced data innovation, including accelerating our application of industrial artificial intelligence along with a range of other cutting-edge breakthrough opportunities," said Neil Crockett, Rolls-Royce, Chief Digital Officer in a statement.