Enhancing On-Site Maintenance Execution with ICT – A Case Study

Information and communications technologies (ICT) can be used to improve the efficiency of field service processes. The role of ICT in assisting the planning process of preventive equipment maintenance has been abundantly discussed in the literature, but the actual on-site maintenance execution and the value of information have escaped the attention of most researchers. This gap in research has been pointed out by a few authors [4][25]. Due to the scarce literature on ICT support for maintenance operation execution, we pose the following research problem: How can maintenance execution be helped with better information? This problem is approached by examining how the unavailability of information does affect maintenance execution performance, and what the most often required pieces of information are. This study includes a literature part and a case study. In the literature part, we first examine the maintenance environment where breakdown maintenance policy and field service are distinguished as the most challenging environments in terms of managing equipment down-time. After that, we examine equipment down-time and uses of ICT systems in accordance with a framework for the components of defect rectification time that is built upon a model according to Knotts [21]. In the case study, we examine the service company network of a Finnish capital goods manufacturer. We use interviews, survey of service companies, and data analyses to examine the case in accordance with the framework developed in the literature part. The study revealed that about 40% of the failed service visits are caused by the unavailability of information. In addition, almost a third of the service visit’s duration is used to inquire for equipment details and to diagnose the problem. We conclude that better information would increase the service call success ratio and would cut down the duration of the on-site service operations

Installed base information : ensuring customer value and profitability after the sale

This thesis explores the business benefits for capital goods manufacturers in maintaining systematic records for individual products in their installed base. The research results show that such installed base information can be essential for a company interested in improving both the value their customers get from using their products and their after-sales operations' profitability. Although companies have product-related records on their sales, production, deliveries, service contracts, and service jobs, the data in the often function-specific information systems remain incompatible, and an overview of the installed base is missing. The resulting situation resembles that of manufacturing before ERP systems were introduced to unify function-specific transaction data in the manufacturing process. Whereas the ERP systems for production have been powerful in standardizing transaction data involving product and component types, the value for customers after the sale is created through product individuals. To implement information systems focusing on individual products, it is necessary to understand which functions are interested in such information and what data should be standardized and gathered. The research's main objective was to improve understanding of the reasons for maintaining installed base information and understanding of the installed base information's structure. The research's empirical part consists of four in-depth case studies in four capital goods manufacturing companies providing product-related services. In each case study, the focal company developed its installed base information systems. Consequently, several purposes for installed base information were identified towards providing customer value during the product use, both through ensuring the products' operational reliability and through supporting the customer's goals with the products. Ensuring product reliability for the customer requires that service units be prepared for servicing the individual products in their area and that the company can identify and resolve production and design problems with their products. Supporting the customers' goals requires that sales and product development can adjust the customer offers to differences among customer applications as well as changes in the customers' operations. At the same time, after-sales operations' profitability can be improved through adjusting investments in service resources and service pricing based on the serviced products. Further, analyses of the installed products and the after-sales service operations support identifying performance problems with products, services, or customer contracts decreasing after-sales service profitability and requiring corrective actions. The research revealed three main categories of information needed to support the above purposes: information on the individual products, information on the customer site where the product is installed, and information on the service events involving the product installations. These information categories enable analyses involving products, customer applications, and their performance over time

Life cycle costing: a review of published case studies

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 paper aims to review reports on LCC applications to provide an overview of LCC uses and implementation feasibility. Design/methodology/approach – A review of LCC cases reported in academic and practitioner literature. Case reports were compared against one another 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: covered fewer parts of the whole life cycle, estimated the costs on a lower level of detail, used cost estimation methods based on expert opinion rather than statistical methods, and 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 – First systematic analysis of LCC applications that gives directions for further research on the LCC concept.Case studies, Life cycle costs, Product life cycle

The Product Centric Approach: A Solution to Supply Network Information Management Problems?

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

Efficient Tracking for Short-Term Multi-Company Networks

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