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According to regulations, aircraft must be in an airworthy condition before they can be operated. To ensure airworthiness, they must be maintained by an approved component maintenance organisation. This study is aimed to identify potential errors that may arise during the final inspection and certification process of aircraft components, categorise them, determine their consequences and quantify the associated risks. Any removed aircraft components must be sent to an approved aircraft component maintenance organisation for further maintenance and issuance of European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Form 1. Thereafter, a final inspection and certification process must be conducted by certifying staff to receive an EASA Form 1. This process is crucial because any errors during this stage can result in the installation of unsafe components in an aircraft.

The Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach (SHERPA) method was used to identify potential errors. This method involved a review of the procedures of three maintenance organisations, individual interviews with ten subject matter experts and a consensus group of 14 certifying staff from different maintenance organisations to achieve the desired results.

In this study, 39 potential errors were identified during the final inspection and certification process. Furthermore, analysis revealed that 48.7% of these issues were attributed to checking errors, making it the most common type of error observed.

This study pinpoints the potential errors in the final inspection and certification of aircraft components. It offers maintenance organisations a roadmap to assess procedures, implement preventive measures and reduce the likelihood of these errors.

This paper aims to analyze the main challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) in managing multi-sided platforms (MSP) in Brazil, as well as to understand the differences between this management model and traditional companies.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced professionals in the field, focusing on challenges, CSFs and difficulties in managing MSP businesses. The data were analyzed using a mixed-method approach, involving content analysis for qualitative data and grey relational analysis and sensitivity analysis for quantitative data.

The experts identified eight CSFs, seven key differences between traditional businesses and MSPs, and five technology-related challenges in managing MSPs. They assessed the main difficulties reported in the literature and ranked them, with the most critical challenges being competition with companies adopting MSP models in the same sector (product/service niche) and the necessity for ongoing process adjustments to accommodate scalability.

This study enhances understanding of CSF, disparities between traditional and MSPs and technology-related challenges in this management model. The results can assist managers in emerging nations in enhancing the performance of MSP operations and can be a resource for researchers studying various contexts and creating company guidelines.

This study investigates the impact of financial health and corporate governance on aviation safety, aiming to fill a critical gap in existing research. The purpose of this study is to identify how these factors influence the safety records of airlines and provide insights for regulators, airlines and stakeholders to enhance aviation safety.

Using a comprehensive international sample spanning 1950–2009 and later, this empirical analysis draws on diverse databases. The authors examine 372 airlines across 70 countries from 1990 to 2016. The research uses statistical models to analyze the relationship between financial indicators, corporate governance quality and aviation safety, addressing limitations of prior single-country studies.

The findings reveal a significant inverse relationship between financial health and accident propensity, with profitable airlines exhibiting lower accident rates. Additionally, airlines with higher corporate governance quality, characterized by qualified directors and stable leadership, experience fewer accidents. The study identifies key factors such as pilot errors, mechanical failures and adverse weather, contributing to approximately 75% of accidents, emphasizing the importance of organizational control.

This research has crucial implications for aviation safety policies and practices. Regulators and international organizations, such as International Civil Aviation Organization and International Air Transport Association, should allocate resources to supervise financially vulnerable airlines and those with lower governance quality. Governments might consider incentivizing safety practices through tax deductibility for relevant expenses. Shareholders are encouraged to prioritize qualified, younger and less busy directors, recognizing their impact on safety performance.

This study contributes to existing literature by addressing methodological biases and offering a comprehensive international perspective. The identification of a link between financial health, corporate governance and accident rates in the aviation industry provides valuable insights. The research informs policymakers, regulators and industry stakeholders on effective strategies to improve safety by considering financial and governance factors under their control.

The technical report released by the National Transportation Safety Board, along with the primary flight cockpit voice recorder data and archival interview data, were used as the basis for this case. Other available public data such as news reports were used to round out the synopsis of the case study.

United Express Flight 5925 was a scheduled commuter passenger flight operated by Great Lakes Airlines with a Beechcraft 1900 twin turboprop. It was a regularly scheduled flight from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Quincy, Illinois, with an intermediate stop in Burlington, Iowa. Drawing from various first-hand accounts (cockpit voice recorder) and secondary evidence (news reports, archival interview data, and online sources) of the tragedy, the case provides a detailed account of the key events that took place leading up to the accident at Quincy regional airport. The case describes how the radio interactions, a jammed door and degradation of situational awareness all contributed to the accident. Through many of the quotes in the text and eyewitness accounts, readers gain an understanding of the impressions and perceptions of the pilots, including how they felt about many of the critical decisions in the last minutes of the flight and the situation at the airport.

When the authors teach this case, the students are required to read it as pre-reading before class. Various readings and materials (see supplemental readings below and Exhibit 3) are made available to students before class, and the instructor can choose to use some of these materials to further explore areas of interest. This case is best explored over a 90-min session but could be expanded to take up one 3-h session. This case can be covered in an undergraduate senior capstone organizational behaviour seminar, any general organizational behaviour class (including introductory in nature), an undergraduate communication theory class or an MBA class that focuses on applied organizational behaviour concepts. It works particularly well in the MBA class, as students with work experience can make the links between the behaviours explored in the case and their everyday workplaces.

This paper aims to explore the optimization process involved in the aircraft maintenance allocation and packing problem. The aircraft industry misses a part of the optimization potential while developing maintenance plans. This research provides the modeling foundation for the missing part considering the failure behavior of components, costs involved with all maintenance tasks and opportunity costs.

The study models the cost-effectiveness of support against the availability to come up with an optimization problem. The mathematical problem was solved with an exact algorithm. Experiments were performed with real field and synthetically generated data, to validate the correctness of the model and its potential to provide more accurate and better engineered maintenance plans.

The solution procedure provided excellent results by enhancing the overall arrangement of the tasks, resulting in higher availability rates and a substantial decrease in total maintenance costs. In terms of situational awareness, it provides the user with the flexibility to better manage resource constraints while still achieving optimal results.

This is an innovative research providing a state-of-the-art mathematical model and an algorithm for efficiently solving a task allocation and packing problem by incorporating components’ due flight time, failure probability, task relationships, smart allocation of common preparation tasks, operational profile and resource limitations.

The purpose of this research is to provide a theoretical framework for complex equipment quality risk evaluation. The primary aim of the framework is to enhance the ability to identify risks and improve risk control efficiency during the development phase.

A novel framework for quality risk evaluation in complex equipment is proposed, which integrates probabilistic hesitant fuzzy set-quality function deployment (PHFS-QFD) and grey clustering. PHFS-QFD is applied to identify the quality risk factors, and grey clustering is used to evaluate quality risks in cases of poor quality information during the development stage. The unfolding function of QFD is applied to simplify complex evaluation problems.

The methodology presents an innovative approach to quality risk evaluation for complex equipment development. The case analysis demonstrates that this method can efficiently evaluate the quality risks for aircraft development and systematically trace back the risk factors through hierarchical relationships. In comparison to traditional failure mode and effects analysis methods for quality risk assessment, this approach exhibits superior effectiveness and reliability in managing quality risks for complex equipment development.

This study contributes to the field by introducing a novel theoretical framework that combines PHFS-QFD and grey clustering. The integration of these approaches significantly improves the quality risk evaluation process for complex equipment development, overcoming challenges related to data scarcity and simplifying the assessment of intricate systems.

Aero-engine exhaust plume length can be more than the aircraft length, making it easier to detect and track by infrared seeker. Aim of this study is to analyze the effect of free stream Mach number (M_∞) on length of potential core of plume. Also, change in infrared (IR) signature of plume and aircraft surface with variation in elevation angle (θ) is examined.

Convergent divergent (CD) nozzle is located outside the rear fuselage of the aircraft. A two dimensional axisymmetric computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study was carried out to study effect of M_∞ on potential core. The CFD data with aircraft and plume was then used for IR signature analysis. The sensor position is changed with respect to aircraft from directly bottom towards frontal section of aircraft. The IR signature is studied in mid wave IR (MWIR) and long wave IR (LWIR) band.

The potential plume core length and width increases as M_∞ increases. At higher altitudes, the potential core length increases for a fixed M_∞. The plume emits radiation in the MWIR band, whereas the aerodynamically heated aircraft surface emits IR in the LWIR band. The IR signature in the MWIR band continuously decreases as the sensor position changes from directly bottom towards frontal. In the LWIR band the IR signature initially decreases as the sensor moves from the directly bottom to the frontal, as the sensor begins to see the wing leading edges and nose cone, the IR signature in the LWIR band slightly increases.

The novelty of this study comes from the data reported on the effect of free stream Mach number on the potential plume core and variation of the overall IR signature of aircraft with change in elevation angle from directly below towards frontal section of aircraft.

This research aims to specialise in the investigation of risk management for service-oriented manufacturing supply chains via two stages, highlighting its differences from manufacturing. The research article is commenced by executing an encyclopedic review of earlier research to ascertain the distinctive traits of service-oriented manufacturing supply chains and identify prevalent risks. Secondly, an empirical study in the construction field, amongst the industry hardest struck in the mist of the COVID-19 epidemic, is conducted to thoroughly inspect the resonant effect of these risks on service-oriented manufacturing supply chain performance.

In this study, to validate the resonant effect mechanism, a thorough assessment is undertaken by juxtaposing theoretical model to a newly constructed comparative model that encompasses the single effects of risks on supply chain performance.

63% variance of service-oriented manufacturing supply chain performance was showcased by the resonant effect model, compared with 46.3% in the comparative model. Moreover, each risk exerts a more glaringly significant impact on supply chain performance, asserting the mechanism of the resonant influence. Another noteworthy result involves the demand risk possessing a low effect on supply chain performance, thus emphasising the superiority of service-oriented manufacturing supply chains.

Future research endeavours should hinge on the optimal “resonant” model explosion, thereby foreseeing and alleviating worst-case scenarios to guarantee the robustness and resilience of supply chain networks.

Indubitably, reducing the intensity of the resonant effect revolves around lowering the coefficient of “a,” thereby restricting/eliminating the link among risks. Therefore, the suggested resonant impact model might thus serve as “a road map”. In light of the aforementioned considerations, it is advisable that supply chain executives employ supply chain management tactics namely avoidance, prediction, and postponement, but only after meticulous consideration the costs and benefits of adopting such strategies.

The service-oriented manufacturing supply chain features and advantages have been analysed and explained throughout the article. The data gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic is a captivating and topical point of this paper.

Alpha Design Technologies Private Limited (ADTL) was started in 2004 by Colonel H.S. Shankar after his retirement from services in the Indian Army and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). Aggressively growing the company from US$0.04m in 2004 to US$100m in 2022, he proved that age was not a barrier to success in entrepreneurship. His aspirations were to gain a greater presence in foreign markets through higher exports. After reading this case study, the students will be able to understand how the defence sector evolved in India and the role of private-sector enterprises; recognise the risks and opportunities in the changing dynamics of defence sector in India; believe that the ideas and capabilities of an entrepreneur increase with relevant previous experiences; appreciate the ambition and managerial capabilities of an entrepreneur even at the age of 60; apply Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour on the entrepreneurial journey of Shankar and formulate strategies for growth.

Started in the year 2004, ADTL specialises in manufacturing defence-related products. ADTL was cofounded by Shankar, at the age of 60. His experience of working with the Indian Army and BEL in various capacities gave him the proficiency to start a venture on his own after his retirement. The ecosystem in India was favourable for ADTL as the Government opened up the defence sector for private players. Nevertheless, age was not a barrier for this senior citizen to tap the opportunity and work aggressively to grow his venture from US$0.04m in 2004 to US$100m in 2022. By 2023, ADTL had an employee strength of 1,200 including 650 engineers, and they emerged as a market leader in Software Defined Radio space. They manufactured around 200 different products for defence and space. ADTL exported 60% of the defence products to countries such as Israel, the USA and Germany. Moving forward, the dream for Shankar was to make a mark in the defence geography of the world through ADTL, by improving its export volumes and also through strategic alliances.

This case study can be taught to Master of Business Administration/postgraduate degree in management students as a part of the introductory course on entrepreneurship and strategy. This case study can be used specifically to make the students understand the role of private sector in the manufacturing of defence products after the liberalisation policy of the Government of India. The intention was not only to protect the nation from the threat posed by neighbouring countries but also to promote exports of defence products to other countries to improve foreign exchange earnings.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed insight into the global military robot industry with an emphasis on products and their applications.

Following an introduction which includes a brief historical account, this provides an industry overview, including various market dimensions and a discussion of the geopolitical and technological factors driving market development. The three following sections provide details of land, airborne and marine robots, their capabilities and deployments in recent conflicts. Finally, brief conclusions are drawn.

Military robots which operate on land, in the air and at sea constitute a multi-billion dollar industry which is growing rapidly. It is being driven by geopolitical tensions, notably the military-technology arms race between China and the USA and the conflict in Ukraine, together with technological progress, particularly in AI. Many robots possess multi-functional capabilities, and the leading application is presently intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. An increasing number of heavily armed robots are being developed, and AI has the potential to impart these with the capacity to deliver lethal force without human intervention. Although heavily criticised in some quarters, this capability has probably already been deployed on the battlefield. With ever-growing military budgets, escalating political tensions and technological innovations, robots will play an increasingly significant role in future conflicts.

This provides a detail account of military robots and their role in modern warfare.