Most of the North Sea oil companies have recognized the need to adjust their management processes, including those concerned with operations and maintenance, to the changed and changing business conditions in industry at large, particularly due to the volatile oil price. This has been a rationale to review organizational operations and maintenance policies by many. This paper describes findings from a research study on operations and maintenance performance conducted in the emerging operating environment with close cooperation of leading oil and gas organizations in the Norwegian continental shelf. An attempt has been made to develop an architecture for effective management of operations and maintenance performance linking results to performance drivers. This has further been extended to apply the balanced scorecard concept. The papers emphasize on the value rather than the cost of operations and maintenance in the emerging business environment, and stresses that there is a need to move from a plant‐based policy to a more or less long‐term business‐oriented approach.

PurposeThis paper seeks to present an overview of current trends in employing wireless solutions to engineering asset and maintenance management.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews literature and technological advances in wireless technologies and their applications in engineering asset and maintenance management from the viewpoint of assessing their potential impact, use and penetration in industrial practice. Rather than attempting a literature survey, the paper highlights emerging opportunities, benefits and potential hurdles in the adoption of mobile application solutions for industrial assets.FindingsDespite the fact that the use of advanced application solutions in manufacturing, production or process facilities takes place at a different scale, the emerging trend has already shown that mobile technologies have a great potential to redefine and re‐engineer the conventional setting for industrial asset and maintenance management. They have already begun to form the basis for offering advanced and smart solutions to remotely manage complex, high‐risk, and capital‐intensive assets, regardless of the geographical location, building agile information and knowledge networks. The key characteristics of the emerging environment include: 24/7 connectivity for active data management, enhanced web‐based interactivity, ready access to knowledge and information, and growth of use of advanced communication networks.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper focuses on analysing current trends and concludes by highlighting promising research directions in employing wireless and mobile solutions for engineering and maintenance asset management.Practical implicationsManagerial and engineering personnel, as well as practitioners, can examine on a case‐by‐case basis the specific benefits that can be offered by the introduction of mobile technologies for engineering asset and maintenance management.Originality/valueThe recent penetration of mobile technologies in industrial practice highlights the need to assess the benefits of the technology in maintenance engineering. Much of the literature focuses on the contribution of ICT in maintenance, without analysing the impact of mobile technologies. The paper goes some way towards examining and analysing the current practice and prospects of implementing mobile application solutions in maintenance.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to review the operation and maintenance practices within wind power applications and to clarify practical needs as gaps between researchers and practitioners. Design/methodology/approach -The paper collects, categorizes, and analyzes the published literature of both researchers and practitioners systematically. Findings -The paper defines significant issues in operation and maintenance of wind energy related to: site and seasonal asset disturbances; stakeholders' requirements trade-off; dependability and asset deterioration challenges; diagnostic, prognostic and information and communication technologies (ICTs) applications; and maintenance optimization models. Within each category, the gaps and further research needs have been extracted with respect to both an academic and industrial perspective. Practical implications -The use of wind energy is growing rapidly and the associated practices related to maintenance and asset management are still lacking. Therefore, the literature review of operation and maintenance is a necessity to uncover the holistic issues and interrelationships of what has so far been published as detailed and fragmented topics to specific issues. Wind energy assets represent modern renewable energy assets which are affected by environmental disturbances, rapid technological development, rapid scaling-up processes, the stochastic and dynamic nature of operations and degradation, the integrity and interoperability of system-to-support. Originality/value -The paper provides a comprehensive review of research contributions and industrial development efforts. That will be useful to the life cycle stakeholders in both academia and industry in understanding the maintenance problem and solution space within the wind energy context.

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to explore the required changes, outline business potential and envisage the key steps that a networked manufacturing industry needs to take to reach more sustainably performing manufacturing in the future. Design/methodology/approach -The paper utilises a visionary road-mapping approach to study the required changes and the business potential related to sustainable development in the manufacturing industry. Findings -The results were summarised in three sub-roadmaps empowerment of stakeholders, increase efficiency and creation of new performance criteria. On the basis of the summary of the sub-roadmaps, the framework was configured to describe the opportunities and challenges of sustainable business development in the European manufacturing industry.Research limitations/implications -A clear implication of this study is that a more system-oriented approach, new models for collaboration between network actors and transparently shared network-level KPIs are required before further steps towards a sustainable manufacturing industry can be taken. In addition, sustainability-driven business models are required to specify these changes concretely. Practical implications -The presented sub-roadmaps and framework summarising them could provide new insights to business practitioners exploring business potential of sustainability. Social implications -Understanding about the road-mapping process as tool that enables interaction and envisioning between different stakeholders could also have social implications supporting shared industry-level learning processes. Originality/value -Studies of sustainability within the manufacturing industry have focused mainly on green issues in supply-chain management or corporation-level governance models and reporting practices. The paper presents a broader view of sustainable development and recognises networked business as part of the solution.