No abstract

No abstract

Maintenance measures, such as Key Performance Indicators should align with the strategic objectives. However, this is often not the case, as mainly the cost dimension of services is measured. The field of maintenance has evolved due to maintenance outsourcing and the rising interest of equipment providers to join the service business. There is a need for methods that improve communication between maintenance service customers and service providers to ensure that other value dimensions are recognized and measured. This paper proposes a preliminary framework for integrating comprehensive value assessment into strategic decision-making in maintenance service relationships. The empirical findings based on an online-survey emphasize the fact that several elements contribute to the value of maintenance services, but these elements are in many cases not measured. Based on the ranking of customers, a number of elements such as environmental safety, safety at work, operator knowledge, reliability, and reputation of the service provider should be included in the value assessments.

The field of management research has an utilisation problem. A considerable avenue in which the translation from theory to practice has been only partial is the management control of inter-organisational relationships. In this particular stream of management (accounting) research, open-book accounting (OBA) is a key concept. Based on the OBA literature, our ambition is to develop an implementation framework for inter-organisational mediums (IFFIM). The first part of the framework, IFFIM_1: the relational view is concerned with the multidimensional nature of inter-organisational relationships by illustrating relational complexities through the OBA dimensions. The second part of the framework, IFFIM_2: the process view is an outlook to the stepwise implementation process, where the factors that influence OBA implementation have been integrated to the phases of the so-called enterprise system experience cycle. Unlike most contemporary research, our work is based on the idea of 'design science', the aim of which is to develop general knowledge to support the design of solutions to field problems. IFFIM is a design exemplar to practitioners, i.e., a guideline to follow in the design of interventions.

In industrial contexts, information is usually fragmented into a complex network of organizations and systems. To develop their information management, the organizations need to obtain and maintain situational awareness of their workflows, and identify and understand relevant information and how the planned actions affect the system in the near future. This paper introduces Workflow Information Network Analysis, a managerial method for analysing and improving situational awareness in complex systems. The method is built on the principles of information management, product lifecycle management and value network analysis. A six-step process for applying the method is presented, and the validity of the method has been demonstrated with a case study in which the information flows of a networked aircraft maintenance organisation are analysed. The case study shows that the method enables the identification of discontinuities and bottlenecks in information flows, as well as produces suggestions for further development.