Purpose: Despite existing life cycle costing (LCC) method descriptions and practicable suggestions for conducting LCC analyses, no systematic analyses on actual implementations of LCC methods exist. This article reviews reports on LCC applications to provide an overview of LCC uses and implementation feasibility. Methodology/Approach: A review of LCC cases reported in academic and practitioner literature. Case reports were compared against each other and against the defining articles in the field. Findings: Most of the reported LCC applications were far from ideal. Compared to the methods suggested in the literature many of the case study applications: (i) covered fewer parts of the whole life cycle, (ii) estimated the costs on a lower level of detail, (iii) used cost estimation methods based on expert opinion rather than statistical methods, and (iv) were content with deterministic estimates of life cycle costs instead of using sensitivity analyses. Research limitations/implications: This review is limited to reported LCC applications only. Further research is encouraged in the form of a field-based multiple-case study to reveal context-specific dimensions of LCC analysis and implementation challenges in more detail. Practical implications: This review highlights the difficulty of conducting a reliable LCC analysis, and points out typical problems that should be carefully considered before drawing conclusions from the LCC analysis. Originality/value of the paper: First systematic analysis of LCC applications that gives directions for further research on the LCC concept.

Tracking of shipments is an important element of customer service in the transportation industry; and essential for logistics services as merge-in-transit. However, contemporary tracking systems are designed for use within a single company, and are thus invariably inadequate for multi-company environments. The single company focus has led to a reduced span of monitoring and a diluted accessibility of information due to proprietary tracking codes and information architectures centred on the tracking service provider. This paper presents a novel forwarder-independent approach for solving the difficulties of tracking in multi-company supply networks. The research argues that the proposed tracking approach is superior to contemporary approaches for material flow tracking in short-term multi-company distribution networks.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a representation scheme that helps original equipment manufacturers and their customers choose between different constellations of visibility‐based service.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses conceptual modeling and analysis of visibility‐based service infusion using demand‐supply chain representations.FindingsIn the context of service infusion, increased visibility refers to the improved tracking, retention, and sharing of evidence on which service requirements are based. A representation model of three distinct provider‐customer constellations is conceptualize that reflects specific types of visibility: collaborative service supply chain management: condition‐based maintenance as a service: and visibility‐based asset management. The representation is a useful tool for comparing manufacturers' optional service strategies from the perspective of the demand‐supply chain view. The constellations vary in terms of the type of visibility provided by the customer, the provider's use of this visibility, and the potential benefits and costs of transitioning between constellations.Research limitations/implicationsThe demand‐supply chain representations of visibility‐based service infusion are based on conceptual modeling and a literature review. Empirical research is needed to validate the use of the proposed representation for purposes of making comparative choices, and for exploring other purposes in decision making beyond that of comparative choice.Practical implicationsA tool for customers considering the benefits of visibility‐based services, comparative representation of constellations can help providers formulate better strategies for introducing visibility‐based services in a customer relationship.Originality/valueThe study combines supply chain theory with the service infusion literature in a novel way to produce a framework for comparative representation and decision making in visibility‐based service infusion.

No abstract

The management of single-item level information has grown to be one of the greatest challenges of supply network management. The main reasons for this are the increasing product customisation and increasingly complex supply networks. Product customisation adds to the quantity and specificity of product-related information. Current mainstream solutions, based on integrating product information databases, are not suitable for complex, short-term supply networks. This paper presents an approach and a proposed system for managing single-item level information. The approach we call product centric information management is based on centralising information to the individual products. The proposed system uses software agents, peer-topeer information sharing, and a coding mechanism that utilises the domain names of the Internet. We also review applications of the system in tracking and logistics control. #