Service-based business models in the Swedish railway industry

Purpose: The purpose is to describe new business opportunities within the Swedish railway industry and to support the development of business models that corresponds with the needs and requirements of Industry 4.0, here denoted as Service Management 4.0. Design/methodology/approach: The study is an in-depth and descriptive case study of the Swedish railway system with specific focus on a railway vehicle maintainer. Public reports, statistics, internal documents, interviews and dialogues forms the basis for the empirical findings. Findings: The article describes the complex business environment of the deregulated Swedish railway industry. Main findings are in the form of identified business opportunities and new business model propositions for one of the key actors, a vehicle maintainer. Originality/value: The article provides valuable understanding of business strategy development within complex business environments and how maintenance related business models could be developed for reaching Service Management 4.0

Engineering education development – a business modelling approach

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to promote an innovative approach to education development projects by the application of business modelling tools and methods. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed method is based on tools and methods from the business modelling area, such as stakeholder mapping, SWOT analysis, business modelling canvas and scenario analysis. The applicability of the approach is illustrated by a case study conducted on an engineering programme, where qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through interviews, surveys and workshops. Findings – Utilising business modelling tools for development projects in higher education gives several benefits: (1) knowledge-informed decision making; the methods require good understanding of the current situation as well as possible strategies to be applied, that is data gathering is necessary before decision making; (2) structured decision making by applying a step-by-step approach for the development project; (3) including different stakeholder's perspectives in order to gain a holistic understanding and avoid sub optimisation. Originality/value – The approach promotes innovation and action driven development rather than a bureaucratic and metric based improvement process. Tools and models from the business area have previously been applied for educational development. However, a holistic business modelling approach for educational development has not yet been applied

IT governance from the operational perspective : a study of IT governance strategies applied within maintenance management

This paper investigates the existence and effects of different ITgovernance strategies on the operative level of manufacturing industries. Thestudy is based on a mixed research method including statistical analysisof questionnaire data and a qualitative analysis of interview material. Theoperational business unit that is being studied is maintenance and itsmanagement. Several types of IT governance strategies existed within thisbusiness unit according to the study, and the decentralised was the mostcommon. The different strategies had both a positive and negative impact onthe business unit, but the federal IT governance strategy seems to overcomesome of the problems in the others. The results indicate that there might beother characteristics worth testing than the ones used in this study, for instancethe size of the business unit

A Study of Maintenance-Related Education in Swedish Engineering Programs

Engineers of today require a holistic understanding of the lifecycle of products and processes, from conceptualization to operations. Maintenance and reliability are areas receiving increased attention due to the contribution to sustainable industry practices. The related literature describes ways to strengthen the education with respect to curricula and teaching, but studies on the extent and content of maintenance-related education in engineering programs are lacking. The purpose of this study is to describe the maintenance-related education content in Swedish engineering programs. The main objects of study are the curricula and courses of engineering programs in Sweden. In total, 123 Bachelor of Engineering and 119 Master of Engineering programs were studied, as well as 36 maintenance-related courses. It was found that 12% of the engineering programs include one or more maintenance-related course, either mandatory or elective. On the Master of Engineering level, only 4% of the programs include mandatory maintenance-related courses. The corresponding number for Bachelor of Engineering programs is 15%. The courses are typically of 6–7.5 credits, but as low as under one credit worth of maintenance-related content is seen, as well as two specialized programs offering up to 60 credits. Of the 36 courses, 20 have a distinct maintenance focus, 2 are degree thesis courses, and 2 are within reliability engineering, while the rest have a focus in other areas. The lack of maintenance-related education makes future engineers less prepared to make good decisions and judgments that might affect the operational phase of the product or system

Maintenance in the digital era : an interview study of challenges and opportunities within the Swedish maintenance ecosystem

Industry 4.0 refers to a fourth generation of industrial activity as a result of the fourth industrial revolution characterized by smart systems and Internet-based solutions. It is foreseen as a great changer of industry with respect to how production is defined and performed. Manufacturing systems will become more modular and more efficient, and control of both the manufacturing process and the devices will become autonomous. The latter directly affects the maintenance and its management. For better understanding the challenges faced in maintenance when entering Industry 4.0, and for enabling a smooth digital development, an interview study was performed with representatives within the maintenance ecosystem. The aim of the study was to get a broad view on maintenance in the digital era in form of applicable technologies, challenges as well as opportunities from various Swedish actors, such as system providers, computerized maintenance management suppliers, researchers, and educators. The findings suggest that the main challenges do not lie in technology, but in factors such as strategic planning, culture and lack of competence.Today, great potential exists for achieving effective maintenance through digital solutions; sensors and process data are the cornerstone of both long-term and short-term planning, and for detecting and preventing malfunctions. Even though, maintenance today is planned mainly based on calendar time, and sensor data are hard to utilize efficiently for the planning or improvement of maintenance. Amongst possible reasons are difficulties to identify suitable digital solutions that lead to more efficient maintenance management, and to find effective ways to improve maintenance plans by analysing existing data. A roadmap for the transformation is required for facilitating the digital development in maintenance, including a structured approach, methods and tools for the digital transformation, as well as the collaboration between different stakeholders in the maintenance ecosystem

Maintenance Knowledge Requirements for Engineering Education : A Curriculum for the Modern Engineer

This paper describes the curriculum content of modern engineering education and develops a curriculum that integrates maintenance related knowledge into the engineering curricula. The integrated curriculum serves as a guideline when integrating maintenance knowledge into engineering programs, in the form of lectures, student activities or modules in different courses, or as an independent course in maintenance technology and management

On the utilisation of information technology for the management of profitable maintenance

Maintenance is one area of business that recently has been considered as an activity contributing efficiently to the companies' strategic goals. Understanding the way maintenance could utilise modern technology such as computerised tools or digital data processing is one way to make maintenance profitable. Current research lack appropriate methods for determining data and IT requirements, as well as understanding the way IT could be utilised for enhancing maintenance profitability. This thesis studies and develops tools, methods and theories of how information technology can be utilised for maintenance management in order to reach profitable maintenance. The main research problem is therefore: What are the demands on information technology systems to achieve profitable maintenance? The main problem has been divided into three research questions: RQ1) What are the demands on data and information technology systems for strategic management of maintenance?, RQ2) How can we identify relevant data and information technology systems required to achieve cost-effective maintenance decisions? and RQ3) How can we describe the utilisation of information technology within maintenance? This thesis is based on a systems theory approach, where maintenance is not seen as an isolated activity, but something that interacts, affects and is affected by several other activities, such as production, logistic and quality. Several methods have been used for answering the research questions, but the theory-testing case study method dominates. Main results achieved in the thesis are models and theory for 1) creating a relevant set of data for cost-effective mainte-nance decisions, 2) monitoring the performance of maintenance, suggest invest-ment possibilities and show maintenance contribution on company strategic level, 3) identifying IT systems requirements demanded to achieve profitable maintenance and 4) assessing the IT maturity of a maintenance organisation for the effective utilisation of IT systems. As an illustrative example of computerised maintenance management demands a conceptual decision support model has been developed, which aims at filling the gaps of poor IT coverage for strategic maintenance decision-making. This thesis concludes that the demands of data and IT applications must be connected to the overall maintenance demands, which are reflected in the maintenance goals, purposes and strategy, in order to achieve profitable maintenance. Furthermore, structured methods that ensure the connection between maintenance business goals and data or IT demands are of importance. The ability to make use if IT within maintenance is reflected in the relative IT maturity of the maintenance organisation. Being able to define the IT maturity allows for choosing the most appropriate IT tool to invest in, so that current and future needs of IT support are also covered for with maximum benefit and minimum cost

What Should We Teach? : A Study of Stakeholders’ Preceptions on Curriculum Content

The Bachelor of Engineering is a complex form of education; it has to meet the requirements of higher education in terms of academic stringency and scientific approaches, and at the same time fulfil the requirements of the companies and other takers on employability and professionalism. The aim of the CDIO initiative is to help educational institutions to fulfil the latter without losing the academic basis. Several studies have been made asking different actors to give their view on education and needed competencies, but these are often delimited to one or a couple of actors. One possible reason is the complexity of conducting such studies. This paper reports on a survey including program students, alumni and industry representatives and covers their perceptions of what is important to include in a Bachelor of Engineering program, and what is not. The methodological issues and choices as well as the main results are accounted for. The program in focus is a three-year Bachelor of Engineering in Forest and Wood Engineering taught at Linnaeus University, and the questions regarding content were based on the CDIO syllabus.   Results show that there are some contents all three groups of actors regard as important; all found knowledge in forestry, material sciences and technology related to wood industry as important. Also, analytic and communication skills, and the ability to work in groups were seen as important. Understanding social and environmental conditions and enterprise and business terms was also necessary. Least important was the ability to communicate in foreign languages and knowledge regarding construction technology and deepened knowledge of forestry