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US Navy warships are capital-intensive national defense assets that require periodic depot and intermediate level maintenance availabilities (periods). Oftentimes, ship maintenance is deferred or forgone altogether due to geopolitical strife or fiscal challenges. The impacts of missed maintenance are not only a burden on ships’ crews, but they also have a deleterious effect on current and future readiness. It is a difficult task to strike a balance between current and future readiness when insufficient resources are available to sustain a fleet of warships. This paper draws from multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) to develop a ship maintenance decision-making model that considers attributes from the current and life cycle readiness cohorts. Using the current maintenance plans for two DDG 51-class ships entering availabilities in same fiscal year, this model determines which ship is more capable of absorbing a loss of maintenance and planned modernizations relative to the context of the decision environment. Five attributes are considered for the overall decision: mandatory maintenance, non-mandatory maintenance, mission impact from maintenance, mission impact from planned modernizations, and maintenance backlog. The model presented here is generalizable to a number of U.S. Navy ships and watercraft and can be used to inform decision-makers of the short- and long-term impacts of deferring critical maintenance.

Reviews overall models for maintenance management from the viewpoint of one who believes that improvements can be made by regarding maintenance as a “contributor to profits” rather than “a necessary evil”. The reasons why maintenance is such a “Cinderella function” are largely historical and can mostly be overcome by new information technology (IT) and its falling cost. Progress is now being held up by outdated notions of what is economically possible in data acquisition and analysis, and failure to revise basic maintenance and reliability concepts, some of which are now 30 years out‐of‐date. Integrated IT permits mathematical optimisation of supra‐departmental management decisions, e.g. co‐planning of production with maintenance, overhaul/renewal of machinery and improvement of product performance/quality. Life‐cycle profit (LCP) is a fair measure of overall effectiveness that emphasises the value rather than the cost of terotechnological activities.

An application development framework for a software project based on fusion as an object‐oriented application development method is presented. An object‐oriented approach has been adopted for the design and implementation of the prototype interactive visual modelling system for building a visual presentation of a refinery process and creation of linear programming model for optimizing production decision variables. The main reason for this selection is the consideration of object‐oriented programming (OOP) as an obvious vehicle for the development of complex visual interactive modelling systems. The main dimensions of the framework are as follows: OO approach, fusion method, computer‐aided software engineering (CASE) tool, application development tool, GUI development tool, and C++ as an implementation language.

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

This study explores the influencing factors of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) readiness stage on project success immediately after go-live from the project manager’s perspective.

The influencing factors of the ERP readiness stage are explored through the literature and expert review sessions and are embedded in Kotter’s change management model. A survey-based empirical study is conducted among ERP project managers in Turkey in 2019 utilizing principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis to reveal the direct relation of influencing factors and project success.

Results show that the proposed model explains 65.179% of the variation with four components. The association of components through regression analysis reveals that project planning and management, employee commitment and change management directly relate to the ERP project success. Yet, surprisingly top management support is not directly correlated. Therefore, the results suggest that influencing factors of such long projects are to be evaluated by the stages of the project life cycle.

This research is limited to the project managers’ perspective in Turkey and the readiness stage of the project life cycle.

The objectives of this research serve as a guideline for ERP project managers to consider the success factors in terms of ERP project phases. This ensures that the project manager allocates optimum resources to the right factors at the right time.

Despite numerous studies in the ERP readiness stage, this study opens new ways of future research while filling several gaps. First, the ERP readiness phase is discussed with a theoretical approach through Kotter’s change management model. Second, the influencing factors of the ERP readiness stage on ERP project success from the project manager’s perspective are explored, and factor structures are revealed. Then, the association of the factors with ERP project success of “immediately after go-live” is empirically tested.

The aim of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the theory of attractive quality through an empirical investigation of an e‐service. Our focus is on the consistency of different levels of service attributes and their dynamics. Our empirical investigation aims to increase both the validity of the theory of attractive quality and the use of technology readiness as a means to understand the variation of customer perceptions of service attributes.

A survey of customers' technology readiness, usage and perceptions of an e‐service was conducted. Four propositions concerning the consistency and dynamics of Kano's theory of attractive quality are tested, mainly using general linear models.

Our results show that by investigating customers at different stages of the service adoption curve, a better understanding of certain dynamics of service attributes can be achieved. When the e‐service was introduced, it was perceived as indifferent; at present it is seen as an attractive service by the market. But the early adopters of e‐services already regard it as a one‐dimensional or a must‐be service.

The study provides a new framework and methodology for how to investigate the dynamics of service attributes, not only between individuals within different market segments, but also at different service attribute levels. From a managerial standpoint, our results suggest consequential insight about the life cycle of the services that an organization provides to its customers.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a sustainability readiness assessment model and a sustainability assessment model for manufacturing organizations.

The proposed models have been developed using resource-based theory along the integrated supply chain. The models are based on resources sustainability (people, money, material, energy, infrastructure, water, and air), critical factors of sustainability (product, process and policies), sustainability dimensions (environment, economic, and social), and life cycle sustainability (integrated supply chain).

The paper presents an integrated assessment system which includes: product life cycle, resources, critical factors (product, process, and policy), key performance indicators, and their interrelationship with sustainability dimensions. The three critical factors and all the important resources required by a manufacturing organization along the integrated supply chain are identified. The readiness assessment model is user friendly and effective to guide the managers to identify the weak areas of sustainability.

The proposed model for readiness assessment is tested and in an automotive manufacturing organization but the sustainability assessment model is conceptual and it requires validation by implementing the same in an organization to understand its effectiveness.

The readiness assessment model can help the top management to decide whether the organizational orientation is correct to improve sustainability. The easy to use models can be used by the decision/policy makers and independent bodies to assess, compare and benchmark the products, processes or organizations and thus affect public policies and attitudes.

This study has developed, for the first time, a sustainability readiness assessment model. The resource-based theory has been applied along the integrated supply chain.

Studies have suggested that attributes are dynamic and a life cycle of product and service attributes exists. When an innovative feature is introduced, the feature might attract and delight customers. However, with the passage of time the state of the attractiveness of this feature may change, for better or for worse. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed model that shows the factors and related sub-factors that affect the life cycle of a feature and thereby explain the changes that may happen to a feature over time.

This model provide detailed explanations of the direct and indirect factors that affect the states of a feature, the ones that affect the rate of adoption, and the ones that trigger the changes between states. The model uses a current-market product’s feature to discuss the effects of these factors on the life cycle of this feature in detail.

This paper extends the theory of attractive quality attributes by identified seven states of the feature in its life cycle. These states are as follows: unknown/unimportant state, honey pot state, racing state, required state, standard state, core state, and dead state. This paper also identified eight major factors that affect the transition of the feature from one state to another. These factors include demographic, socioeconomic, behavioural, psychological, geographical, environmental, organisational, and technological factors.

The findings of this paper provide additional evidence that product and service attributes are dynamic. This paper also increases the validity of the attractive quality attributes theory and the factors that affect the state of the feature in its life cycle. The understanding of the state of the feature in its life cycle, and the factors that influence this change, helps not only in the introduction of completely new features but also in knowing when to remove obsolescent ones.

The purpose of this paper is to provide greater insights to managers seeking to time properly the launches of innovative new products (NPs) across multiple generations. This paper aims to address the rhythm matching problem by developing a typology and a conceptual framework of the interaction between a firm's technological readiness to launch NPs and a market's receptivity in influencing a firm's long‐term performance.

Based on the new product development (NPD) and diffusion of innovation literatures, the paper develops a model explicitly to address the rhythm matching problem by highlighting the interaction between a firm's technological readiness to launch new products and a market's receptivity in influencing a firm's long‐term performance. The logic of this model may be described as follows: long‐term performance is a function of matching: products to customer needs, marketing mix dynamics to customer segments and buying behavior dynamics, and logistics, supply chain management, and inventory to market dynamics and financial efficiency; uncertainty in: knowledge of needs, market segments and their dynamics, and market dynamics is all a function of time, as is financial efficiency. Therefore, a firm's long‐term performance is a function of these matches over time.

Deriving from the proposed model and typology, it was found that in independent rhythm windows, the management focus is on a single generation and each successive generation can be planned independently. In market‐imposed windows, firms aim at adapting their own NP readiness rhythm to the market receptivity rhythm. In firm‐imposed windows, firms have the initiative to drive the market receptivity rhythm. In dynamically resultant windows, everything is more complicated because firms' NP readiness rhythm and market receptivity rhythm influence each other.

The model and typology developed in this paper are a breakthrough result of synthesizing various traditions of NPD and diffusion of innovation research. It is believed that the paper provides a rich conceptual framework drawing together extant research on the development and introduction of new products. The framework is intended both to explicitly inform managers of the importance of rhythm matching as well as to the factors that influence such matching. It is also intended to provide a lens with which further research can be directed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of resource utilization in NPD and the long‐term success of the firms.