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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to create a cost model at the general equipment level for industrial maintenance services. Design/methodology/approach -The study is divided into two main sections. In the first phase the idea is to create a framework for a cost model with a literature review. The second, empirical part of the study is based on costing information from interviews and information given by network companies: a pulp mill, a maintenance company and an equipment provider. The maintenance of three different equipment processes is examined in the network through a case study, to get more specific information from real world situations to develop the model. Findings -The findings concern the cost items that should be considered in the model, the structure of the model, and how the general cost model is constructed. During the research the model has been extended, and new cost categories included. Practical implications -The cost model can be used in various performance measurement and decision-making situations, such as maintenance service pricing, contract negotiations, outsourcing decisions, and life cycle cost management. Originality/value -The cost model differs from traditional cost models. Earlier models have focused on the perspective of either the service provider or the customer, but not on both perspectives at the same time. However, in order to achieve a win-win situation in a business network, open books practice is expected from each member of the network.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of working capital management on profitability in industrial maintenance service companies.Design/methodology/approach -Analytical modeling has been used as the research method. Finnish industrial maintenance companies have been analyzed on the basis of their financial statements.Findings -We reveal a significant negative correlation between the cycle times of operational working capital and the return on investment of industrial maintenance companies. Ligth fixed assets and good profitability of the maintenance sector emphasize the importance of working capital management. Large maintenance service companies seem to achieve competitive advantage over small and medium sized maintenance service providers through both fixed assets-and working capital-related economies of scale, and through the fact that large maintenance service providers often focus on providing services mostly for their host companies.Research limitations -The scarcity of large enterprises in the market in question precludes the use of a more extensive sample in the analysis.Practical implications -In the industrial maintenance service business, more attention should be paid to active management of working capital. We can conclude that this holds true especially in large industrial maintenance service enterprises.Originality/value -We contribute to the unexplored perspective of industrial maintenance companies. Previous studies of industrial maintenance companies have not addressed working capital management, which gains more and more attention under the volatile economic circumstances of the present day.Keywords Industrial maintenance services, Profitability, Working capital, Flexible asset management model Paper type Research paper IntroductionThe focus of this paper is on the working capital management of industrial maintenance service providers. There is not much previous research about industrial maintenance service providers, although maintenance performance has grown t o be of high importance to industrial companies (e.g. Al-Turki 2011;Simões et al., 2011). Previous research has been mainly done from the point of view of service buyers, concerning mostly outsourcing. On the other hand, several researchers have already linked the asset management perspective to the company-level goals and profitability (e.g. Aoudia et al., 2008;Tam and Price 2008). Considering the present state of industrial services, the global trend towards networkin g and focusing on core competences has led to some notable changes (Broedner et al., 2009;Boulaksil and Fransoo, 2010;Holschbach and Hofmann, 2011). A vast majority of outsourced business functions can be classified as services (Bailey et al., 2002;Benson and Ieronimo, 1996;Kakabadse and Kakabadse, 2002;Harland et al., 2005;McIvor et al., 2009). Bailey et al. (2002) reported that 70% of the companies in their research sample had outsourced one or more of their business functions. Gradually the outsourcing practi ce has extended to more and m...

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to identify and categorize problems in knowledge management of industrial maintenance, and support successful maintenance through adapting the SHEL model. The SHEL model has been used widely in airplane accident investigations and in aviation maintenance, but not in industrial maintenance. Design/methodology/approach-The data was collected by two separate surveys with open-ended questions from maintenance customers and service providers in Finland. The collected data was coded according to SHEL model-derived themes and analysed thematically with NVivo. Findings-We found that the adapted SHELO model works well in the industrial maintenance context. The results show that the most important knowledge management problems in the area are caused by interactions between Liveware and Software (information unavailability), Liveware and Liveware (information sharing), Liveware and Organisation (communication), and Software and Software (information integrity). Research limitations/implications-The data was collected only from Finnish companies and from the perspective of knowledge management. In practice there are also other kinds of issues in industrial maintenance. This can be a topic for future research. Practical implications-The paper presents a new systematic method to analyse and sort knowledge management problems in industrial maintenance. Both maintenance service customers and suppliers can improve their maintenance processes by using the dimensions of the SHELO model. Originality/value-The SHEL model has not been used in industrial maintenance before. In addition, the new SHELO model takes also interactions without direct human influence into account. Previous research has listed conditions for successful maintenance extensively, but this kind of prioritization tools are needed to support decision making in practice.

In this paper, we present an analytical model for flexible asset management, which is a new tool for company decision-making. The model reveals a significant negative correlation between the cycle times of operational working capital and the return on investment. Conventional research on working capital management has mostly focused on manufacturing industries. We show that working capital should be managed actively also in unconventional environments like service industries. The focus is on the industrial maintenance service providers, which still remain somewhat unexplored in academic literature. The importance of working capital management is actually emphasized in this industry, due to its light fixed assets and good profitability. Interestingly, there are some major differences between large enterprises and small and medium size enterprises in the industrial maintenance service sector. These can be explained through economies of scale and the fact that large maintenance service enterprises often focus on providing services mostly for their former host companies.