Salla Marttonen-Arola

Decision Making Situations Define Data Requirements in Fleet Asset Management

Large amounts of data are increasingly gathered in order to support decision making processes in asset management. The challenge is how best to utilise the large amounts of fragmented and unorganised data sets to benefit decision making, also at fleet level. It is therefore important to be able to utilize and combine all the relevant data, both technical and economic, to create new business knowledge to support effective decision making especially within diverse situations. It is also important to acknowledge that different types of data are required in different decision making context. A review of the literature has shown that decision making situations are usually categorized according to the decision making levels, namely strategic, tactical and operational. In addition, they can be classified according to the amount of time used in decision making. For example, two situations can be compared: (1) optimization decision where a large amount of time and consideration is used to determine an optimum solution, and (2) decisions that need to be made instantly. Fleet management of industrial assets suffers from a lack of asset management strategies in order to ensure the correct data is collected, analysed and used to inform critical business decisions with regard to fleet management. In this paper we categorize the decision making process within certain situation and propose a new framework to identify fleet decision making situations.

Stagewise Process Towards Collaborative and Value-Driven Decisions in Maintenance Networks

Maintenance services are created increasingly in business networks, but value management is still too often supported by separate tools used by single companies. The aim of this study is to find out how the value of industrial maintenance services can be identified and modelled considering the views of each business network member (e.g. the customer, maintenance service provider and equipment provider) and how the multiple views can be used in collaborative decision making. The paper presents a three-stage process that supports the maintenance service network member companies’ way towards more collaborative and value-driven decisions with the help of the tools created in a project called MaiSeMa. By increasing the collaboration level of the different parties, the value potential of the created tools and also the network increases.

Finnish “state of mind” on inter-organizational integration: A cost accounting and cost management perspective

Purpose The role of management control is frequently emphasized in connection with inter-organizational relationships and value networks. For example, boundary-spanning cost and accounting control techniques have been studied in multifaceted empirical settings. The prevalence of such techniques is, however, currently unknown in conjunction with companies’ interests to increase inter-organizational integration in general. Additionally, also the nexus between the internal state of cost management and the company’s willingness to develop inter-organizational relationships requires further investigation. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on an extensive survey that was responded to by more than 1500 CEOs and CFOs from large, medium-sized and small Finnish enterprises in a variety of industries. As we chose the mixed methods approach, both quantitative and qualitative data was collected for the study. Findings Our findings suggest that companies can be allocated to five clusters; (1) ‘the cost exp...

A Framework for Creating Value from Fleet Data at Ecosystem Level

Abstract As companies have recently gotten more interested in utilizing the increasingly gathered data and realizing the potential of data analysis, the ability to upgrade data into value for business has been recognized as an advantage. Companies gain competitive advantage if they are able to benefit from the fleet data that is produced both in and outside the boundaries of the company. Benefits of fleet management are based on the possibility to have access to the massive amounts of asset data that can then be utilized e.g. to gain cost savings and to develop products and services. The ambition of the companies is to create value from fleet data but this requires that different actors in ecosystem are working together for a common goal - to get the most value out of fleet data for the ecosystem. In order that this could be possible, we need a framework to meet the requirements of the fleet life-cycle data utilization. This means that the different actors in the ecosystem need to understand their role in the fleet data refining process in order to promote the value creation from fleet data. The objective of this paper is to develop a framework for knowledge management in order to create value from fleet data in ecosystems. As a result, we present a conceptual framework which helps companies to develop their asset management practices related to the fleet of assets.

Understand what your maintenance service partners value

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify what is currently valued in maintenance services. The study first conceptualizes the value construct through an examination of its elements, including both financial and non-financial elements, and second provides insight into its actors’ (i.e. customer companies, service providers, equipment providers) attitudes toward value creation. Design/methodology/approach The study uses data collected from maintenance service professionals by an online survey. First an explorative factor analysis is conducted to examine the value construct. After this cluster analysis is conducted to define the actors. Findings The empirical findings suggest seven main elements that capture maintenance service value: relationship synergies, reliability of the service partner, development, availability, service solutions and problem solving ability, environment, health, safety and quality, and adaptability to suit different situations. Further analysis reveals that the actors can be divided into three main strategy types: basic, quality- and collaboration-oriented partners. Originality/value In previous studies the comprehensive nature of maintenance service value has received less attention, and the literature has focused on the technical and financial aspects. This paper provides a new conceptualization of the value creating elements, including also non-financial elements, and offers an integrated measure for the actors to identify the comprehensive value construct around maintenance services. In addition, the findings show that the actors in the field still have varying strategies when considering value creation. Communication and mutual understanding of the value creating elements are important so that right services are carried out and developed with the right partners.