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Among the different methodologies used for performance control in precision manufacturing, the measurement of metrological test artefacts becomes very important for the characterization, optimization and performance evaluation of additive manufacturing (AM) systems. The purpose of this study is to design and manufacture several benchmark artefacts to evaluate the accuracy of the selective laser melting (SLM) manufacturing process.

Artefacts consist of different primitive features (planes, cylinders and hemispheres) on sloped planes (0°, 15°, 30°, 45°) and stair-shaped and sloped planes (from 0° to 90°, at 5° intervals), manufactured in 17-4PH stainless steel. The artefacts were measured optically by a structured light scanner to verify the geometric dimensioning and tolerancing of SLM manufacturing.

The results provide design recommendations for precision SLM manufacturing of 17-4PH parts. Regarding geometrical accuracy, it is recommended to avoid surfaces with 45° negative slopes or higher. On the other hand, the material shrinkage effect can be compensated by resizing features according to X and Y direction.

No previous work has been found that evaluates accuracy when printing inwards (pockets) and outwards (pads) geometries at different manufacturing angles using SLM. The proposed artefacts can be used to determine the manufacturing accuracy of different AM systems by resizing to fit the build envelope of the system to evaluate. Analysis of manufactured benchmark artefacts allows to determine rules for the most suitable design of the desired parts.

To address the absence of Lean in transportation logistics in the digital era, this study aims to investigate the application of Lean transportation (LT) tools to reduce waste and facilitate the digital transformation of dedicated road transportation in the offshore industry.

The study adopts action research with a multimethod approach, including a scoping review, focus groups (FG) and participant observation. The research is conducted within the offshore supply chain of a major oil and gas company.

Implementing LT’s continuous improvement tools, particularly value stream mapping (VSM), reduces offshore transportation waste and provides empirical evidence about the intersection of Lean and digital technologies. Applying techniques drawn from organisational learning theory (OLT), stakeholders involved in VSM mapping and FGs engage in problem-solving and develop action plans, driving digital transformation. Waste reduction in loading and unloading stages leads to control actions, automation and process improvements, significantly reducing downtime. This results in an annual monetary gain of US$1.3m. The study also identifies waste related to human effort and underutilised digital resources.

This study contributes to theory and practice by using action research and LT techniques in a real intervention case. From the lens of OLT, it highlights the potential of LT tools for digital transformation and demonstrates the convergence of waste reduction through Lean and Industry 4.0 technologies in the offshore supply chain. Practical outputs, including a benchmarking questionnaire and a plan-do-check-act cycle, are provided for other companies in the same industry segment.

This study aims to investigate how art events can enrich novice visitors by transforming their practices.

This research uses an interpretive case study of the art exhibition “1/1/1/1/1” in the Oppenheim gallery in Wroclaw. It draws on multiple sources of evidence, namely, novice visitors’ interviews, observation including photo studies and content analysis of art-makers’ mediation sources. This study is an example of contextual theorizing from case studies and participatory action research with researchers as change agents.

The evidence highlights that aesthetic values and experiences are contextual to practices and are transformable into other values. The findings illustrate the role of practice theory in studying how art-makers inspire the transformation of practices, including values driving the latter.

The findings provide implications for transformations of co-creating contextual values in contemporary visual art consumption and customer experience management.

Practical implications to arts organizations are also provided regarding cultural mediation conducted by art-makers. Exhibition makers should explain the meanings of the particularly visible artefacts to allow visitors to develop a congruent understanding of the meanings. The explanations should not provide ready answers or solutions to the problem art-makers suggest to rethink.

The social implication of our findings is that stakeholders in artistic ventures may undertake adequate, qualified and convergent actions to maintain or transform the defined interactive practices between them in co-creating contextual aesthetic values.

The study provides new insights into co-creating values in practices in the domain of contemporary art exhibitions by bringing the practice theory together with an audience enrichment category, thus illustrating how novice visitors get enriched by transforming their practices led by contextual values of “liking” and “understanding”.

As calls have been made to characterize and theorise performance measurement systems (PMS) and as these systems are highly contextualised because of their mission-critical nature, the purpose of this paper is to generate empirically-valid and useful findings with regard to their characterisation as information technology artefacts through an approach founded upon the user’s perspective.

Using both qualitative and quantitative data collection approaches, the authors conducted a field study through extensive interviews in situ with the owner-managers of 16 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The PMS are characterised, from their users’ point of view, in terms of their functional attributes as information systems dedicated to the management of organisational performance, that is, as being either operational, functional, managerial or organisational systems.

Having modelled the PMS artefact in terms of its artefactual dimensions and features, the authors have empirically validated a characterisation approach that allows researchers to circumscribe this artefact within its specific usage context and to identify its salient attributes as study variables.

The research findings provide an empirical basis for the design and evaluation of PMS that is coherent with the specific context of their use in SMEs.

This study validates a novel and demonstrably useful artefactual perspective to characterize and theorise PMS as objects of empirical research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the internet of things (IoT) contributes to manufacturers' advanced services development and delivery. To better understand the creation of these IoT contributions, the study adopts a socio-technical research perspective, which expands the scope of the investigation and integrates the technological, information and social factors that enable these IoT contributions.

A multiple-case research method was employed to investigate the IoT contribution scenarios of 15 manufacturers who offer advanced services and to examine their dependence on other non-IoT factors, using thematic analysis.

The analysis identified five advanced services value propositions, which are enabled by nine “IoT-enabled information systems (IS) artefacts” that specify the distinct interactions between the technological, information and social subsystems supporting the manufacturers' advanced services value propositions.

The study advances the servitisation research by demonstrating that IoT technology on its own is insufficient for the creation of the IoT contributions. It shows, instead, the need for close interactions with a diverse range of other factors, which are often not considered when developing an IoT strategy. The study also introduces the IS artefact notion as a unit of analysis that constitutes an alternative to the commonly adopted techno-centric perspective used to conceptualise IoT contributions. The study and its findings add to the development of a socio-technical perspective on the IoT in advanced services and thereby suggests a number of theoretical and practical implications.

Considering performance measurement and management systems (PMMS) to be “mission-critical” information systems for many business organisations, calls have been made for researchers to shift from studying the use of such systems to studying their “effective” use, and in so doing to focus on their characterisation as information technology (IT) artefacts. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

In seeking to answer these calls, the authors apply Burton-Jones and Grange’s theoretical framework to study the dimensions, contextual drivers and benefits of the effective use of PMMS. This is done through a field study of 16 PMMS artefacts as used in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In characterising, contextualising and valuing the effective use of PMMS, this study provides answers to the following questions: What constitutes the effective use of PMMS? What are the user, artefactual and task-related drivers of such use? And what are the benefits for SMEs of using performance measurement and management (PMM) systems effectively?

With regard to the design of a PMMS artefact, the findings imply that one should concentrate on those artefactual attributes that most enable informed action on the part of owner-managers, as it is these actions have the greater consequences for the realisation of IT business value in SMEs. Moreover, the nomological network resulting from this research provides the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of a diagnostic tool meant to develop the PMM function in SMEs.

This study provides further empirical grounding and understanding. This study provides further empirical grounding and understanding of the concept of effective use, as well as further applicability and actionability to this concept and to the nomological network of its dimensions, contextual drivers and benefits in the case of PMMS and in the context of SMEs.

Companies that strive to provide customers with value in their processes benefit from artefacts that allow them to better understand customer processes (CPs) and to influence CPs in ways that are valuable for customers. Such CP-centric artefacts (CPCAs) carry various labels across research fields, which inhibit their application or utilization for developing further artefacts. This study provides a structured overview of existing CPCAs and investigates which research foundations promote their development.

Twenty-five CP-related keyword combinations are applied in several iterations using multiple (meta) search engines to identify papers on CPCAs across different research streams. Introduced research frameworks organize the identified artefacts and indicate research gaps and reasons why some approaches are more successful in developing CPCAs than others.

Existing CPCAs cover different aspects of CPs and utilize contextual factors of CPs to varying degrees to analyse or influence CPs. Research gaps are identified that indicate opportunities to develop further CPCAs. Taking instantiated methods in combination with CP-related descriptive knowledge as a foundation yields the highest potential for generating beneficial CPCAs.

This paper contributes to CP management literature by offering a foundation for the generation of CPCAs suitable for analysing and influencing CPs of end-consumers. This supports the establishment of a CP management aiming at optimizing both, interlinked business processes and CPs.

This paper aims to clarify the notions that underlie performance measurement systems (PMS) and to propose an information systems (IS)‐based characterisation and definition of PMS, that is, as a performance management information system (PMIS).

Research on PMS can be enhanced by a clear, precise and uniform characterisation of this research object in IS terms A classification scheme is developed and the contribution areas of an IS perspective to PMS research are presented and exemplified.

The knowledge developed in IS research in the form of IS theories, models and methods can be applied in research on PMS, particularly in empirical studies that analyse the individual and organisational behaviours associated with the PMS phenomenon.

The conceptualisation and definition of PMS, as found in the literature, have not truly reflected their basic nature and characterisation as IS.

The research benefits of an IS‐based approach are illustrated through a PMS usage model founded on IS theory. In so doing, a contribution is made to the PMS research field by reinforcing its theoretical and empirical foundations.

This study proposes a novel and demonstrably useful IS‐based perspective, including an improved conceptualization and definition of PMS.

Presents the transcript of an interview with William Bridges, author of Jobshift: How to Prosper in a Workplace without Jobs. Argues that the whole, traditional concept of the job is now becoming a historical artefact. As well as discussing challenges for the future, touches upon benchmarking and re‐engineering, leadership and strategy, and the high priority for learning. The transcript is followed by a review of the book.

The built environment is well known for carbon emission and its impact especially as it pertains to existing buildings. This has culminated in an increasing need for a retrofit of such buildings. This study details the development of an artefact for improving the delivery of energy retrofit projects therein to curb these impacts.

The study utilized a mixed method research design for data collection. In achieving this, data was collected in three different phases; (1) a pilot study; (2) a juxtaposition of desktop case studies, live case studies, focus group discussion forum and an expert survey; and (3) a questionnaire survey for the validation of the emergent artefact. Accordingly, the quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics, whereas qualitative content analysis was deployed for qualitative data.

The findings enabled an identification of the elements of a building energy retrofit project (BERP) such as project initiation, building assessment, detailed energy survey, technical analysis and implementation plans of energy measures, monitoring and verification. Also, it provided the challenges and enablers associated with successful BERP. This information was subsequently utilized in the development and validation of an artefact for delivering successful BERP. Summarily, a set of guidelines comprising of seven stages for managing successful BERPs were elucidated.

The validated artefact provides an adaptive and innovative route for achieving sustainability in retrofit trade.

The study conceptualizes an artefact for improving the delivery of BERPs.