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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the decision-making process and provide a decision support framework for deployment of an on-site analytical capacity (a fieldable laboratory (FL)) to contain an expanding outbreak and protect public health.

The FL mission cycle consists of five successive interlinked phases with a set of operational functions (OFs) performed during the mission. The list of phases, OFs and their contents were iteratively developed during and after FL missions and validated with operational partners.

The well-defined structure of the FL domain appears as the best functional basis for tracking the decision-making process across the whole mission cycle. Description of all the FL elements and information flows addresses the major issue of interoperability of resources used by similar international capacities (inter-)acting as operational partners in global response to the crisis.

The work presents the first attempt in this field to systematically describe and chronologically organize the decisions taken by a FL manager and staff during all phases of the FL mission cycle. Definition of OFs with all the related information flows allows for comparison of procedures, their better planning and refining, validation of protocols, mutual training and operational improvement between FLs from different geographical, organizational and cultural origins.

The purpose of this paper is to eliminate the wastes and inefficient procedures in the maintenance organization of aircraft so as to reduce its downtime and increase mission availability.

Customized lean Six Sigma (LSS) was applied at the task level and servicing cycle level to reduce the task content, cycle length and resources in servicing. The loading of the servicing facility was simulated through a simulation program developed from a statistical analysis of historical data for validating/simulating/determining optimum loading of servicing facility with refined tasks, reduced cycle length and resources. In simulation, the optimum combination of manpower, resources and infrastructure at the facility level was determined through sensitive analysis and design of experiments (DoE).

Optimization at the task level and its re-organization at the servicing cycle level reduced the cycle length by 55-68 per cent and manpower resources by 26 per cent. This further reduced facility-level manpower by 25 to 40 per cent, capacity requirements by more than 33 per cent and annual aircraft downtime by 78 per cent. The approach reduced the average number of aircraft undergoing servicing at each airbase at any time from 2.35 to just 0.76 and increased the mission availability to 20 per cent.

The hallmark of the paper has been the design of LSS approach from structured historical data and its validation through innovative simulation. The multi-pronged bottom-up approach practically bundles all wastes resident in the maintenance organization. The paper provides cursory approach to lean practitioners in the elimination of wastes in the maintenance of capital assets like aircraft.

Asset intensive process industries are under immense pressure to achieve promised return on investments and production targets. This can be accomplished by ensuring the highest level of availability, reliability and utilization of the critical equipment in processing facilities. In order to achieve designed availability, asset characterization and maintainability play a vital role. The most appropriate and effective way to characterize the assets in a processing facility is based on risk and consequence of failure. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this research, a risk-based stochastic modeling approach using a Markov decision process is investigated to assess a processing unit's availability, which is referred as the risk-based availability Markov model (RBAMM). RBAMM will not only provide a realistic and effective way to identify critical assets in a plant but also a method to estimate availability for efficient planning purposes and resource optimization.

A unique risk matrix and methodology is proposed to determine the critical equipment with direct impact on the availability, reliability and safety of the process. A functional block diagram is then developed using critical equipment to perform efficient modeling. A Markov process is utilized to establish state diagrams and create steady-state equations to calculate the availability of the process. RBAMM is applied to natural gas absorption process to validate the proposed methodology. In the conclusion, other benefits and limitations of the proposed methodology are discussed.

A new risk-based methodology integrated with Markov model application of the methodology is demonstrated using a real-life application.

Performance-based contracting (PBC) is a business model for the adaptive and innovative delivery of product-service systems. In PBC, the provider is paid according to the service performance with the aim of providing monetary incentives to safeguard possible outcomes as much as possible for the PBC customer. Performance measurement and its management are crucial for PBC success and, in particular, for the pay-for-performance link. However, the literature on PBC performance management is rather sparse, and there has been no systematic review on the topic. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to fill that gap and to present a comprehensive and systematic review of performance measurement and management in the PBC context.

The paper builds on a literature review based on a sample of 102 subject-relevant articles from academic journals. The content analysis follows a two-step procedure. First, the articles are coded following a process-based research framework. Second, the content of each process step is assessed in a qualitative text analysis.

The results show a surprising scarcity of papers that explicitly address performance management topics in the context of PBC. Only the topics of performance specification and performance indicators are broadly addressed, whereas in all of the other areas, e.g., strategic alignment, data capture and reporting, only limited specific findings could be found.

The paper concludes that future research on performance management in PBC should expand its theoretical framework and empirical efforts in four specific proposed directions.

The paper provides an up-to-date review that is focused on performance management and measurement in the emerging context of PBC.

Aircraft fail to meet mission capable rate goals due to a lack of supply of aircraft parts in inventory where the aircraft breaks. This triggers an order at the repair location. To maximize mission capable rate, the time from order to delivery needs to be minimized. The purpose of this research is to examine the case of three airfields for the order to delivery time of mission critical aircraft parts for a specific aircraft type.

This research captured data from three information systems to assess the order fulfillment process. The data were analyzed to determine the performance in fiscal year 2020. Using the model of that performance, the cost of reducing transportation times using publicly available commercial cost estimates was assessed against the impact on aircraft availability.

The results indicate that paying the costs for expedited shipping would have increased aircraft availability by 1.09 times the average annual aircraft flying hours for the three cases. The cost for the equivalent of an additional aircraft for the year was a third of the annual straight-line depreciation for that aircraft type.

This research assumed that the transportation time service levels publicly posted could be achieved. The weight of each mission critical part was not available, so the weight was selected from a probability distribution of mission critical part weights that was retrieved from prior research. This research provides options to enhance aircraft availability and identifies the associated costs.

Adjusting the contract with transportation providers to reduce the transportation times of mission critical parts could have a large impact on aircraft availability at relatively little cost.

This research could enhance aircraft readiness in service of the common defense.

This research provides an effective methodology for enhancing military readiness through contract adjustments with commercial partners. The value of this research is that it will serve to adjust the value proposition of mission critical parts inside the United States Transportation Command’s Next Generation Delivery Service contract.

This paper aims to measure the effect of supply discrepancy reports (SDRs) on military aircraft readiness metrics, including aircraft availability, not mission capable supply (NMCS) hours, cannibalizations and mission-impaired capability awaiting parts (MICAP) hours.

Monthly SDR, NMCS, aircraft cannibalizations and MICAP data from 2009 to 2018 are analyzed using linear regression and independent samples t-tests to examine whether discrepant shipments negatively impact aircraft readiness.

Results of linear regression were significant in 4 of 12 analyses, suggesting that SDRs are a significant predictor of increased cannibalizations. Results of independent samples t-tests found MICAP hours were significantly higher on discrepant shipments compared to nondiscrepant shipments in all three analyses.

This research will increase awareness of the extent to which SDRs degrade aircraft readiness, and provide an opportunity for United States Department of Defense (DoD) supply chain leaders to take action to improve order fulfillment performance in their organizations.

Little research has been done investigating the impact of SDRs within the DoD, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has examined the effect of SDRs on military aircraft readiness metrics.

Off‐shore market entry approaches of firms using trade missions and those who do not are investigated and found to differ. Comparative results of a sample of Canadian industrial manufacturing firms point to different marketing management styles in terms of greater planning orientation, a more systematic approach, and greater sensitivity toward market and knowledge problems among trade mission users. Trade missions are widely available in many exporting countries and, as exporters face similar challenges when entering new foreign markets, it is concluded that such missions are a potentially useful export marketing tool, however, their use seems contingent upon management style. Implications for export marketing management and public policy are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel hybrid approach called as Markov System Dynamics (MSD) approach which combines the Markov approach with system dynamics (SD) simulation approach for availability modeling and to study the dynamic behavior of repairable systems.

In the proposed approach the identification of the single unit repairable system all possible states has been performed by using the Markov approach. The remaining stages of traditional Markov analysis are highly mathematically intensive. The present work proposes a hybrid approach called as MSD approach which combines the Markov approach with SD simulation approach to overcome some of the limitations of Markov process in a simple and efficient way for availability modeling and to study the dynamic behavior of this system.

The proposed framework is illustrated for a single unit repairable system. The worked out example shows the steady state point and also it gives the point, interval and steady state availabilities and also the dynamic behavior of the system. However this methodology can be extended easily for more complex multi-state maintainable systems. The results of the simulation when compared with that obtained by traditional Markov analysis clearly validate the proposed approach as an alternative approach for availability modeling of repairable systems.

In many practical situations we require to find the time at which our system reaches steady state conditions for planning maintenance activities. The proposed MSD method in this paper is capable of finding this steady state point very easily.

The proposed approach clearly indicates the time at which the system reaches its steady state and calculates the point, interval availabilities for planning maintenance activities. The different parties, i.e., engineers and machine operators, can jointly work with this model in order to understand the dynamic behavior of repairable systems.

The purpose of this research is to analyse military logistics providing a decision support instrument for contracting in defence supply chains.

This instrument – the Performance‐Based Logistics (PBL) portfolio – is developed following the contingency approach. Qualitative interviews and illustrative examples from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are used to validate the portfolio.

The proposed portfolio examines a military demand in respect of its required effectiveness (robustness and resilience), and the suppliers' ability to influence efficiency (forecast and supply risk). In combination, the contingencies are used to recommend three alternative types of PBL contracting.

This paper is based on conceptual work with illustrative case examples. Therefore, although the authors believe that the PBL portfolio provides useful guidance for further research, the empirical applicability of this instrument must be proven.

The research on PBL is gaining importance, but still there remains a deficiency of theoretical grounding and management instruments. This study is a first approach to use the contingency framework for developing such an instrument. The value of the PBL portfolio lies in supporting normative decision making for contracting military supply.

From on-board automotive diagnostics to real-time aircraft state of health, the implementation of health monitoring and management systems are an increasing trend. Further, reductions in operating budgets are forcing many companies and militaries to consider new operating and support environments. Combined with longer service lives for aircraft and other systems, maintenance and operations processes must be reconsidered. The majority of research efforts focus on health monitoring techniques and technologies, leaving others to determine the maintenance and logistics impact on the systems. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This research analyzes the impact of a health monitoring system on a squadron of aircraft. Flight, maintenance and logistics operations are stochastically modeled to determine the impact of program decisions on supply metrics. An arena discrete event simulation is utilized to conduct this research on 20 components on each of the 12 aircraft modeled. Costs and availability are recorded for comparison across three sparing scenarios to include economic order quantity (EOQ) for baseline and health monitoring cases and a just-in-time (JIT) health monitoring set of simulations.

Data are presented for EOQ and JIT supply methods. A comparison of health monitoring enabled supply to current methods shows cost savings and availability gains. The different methodologies are compared and discussed as a trade-space for programmatic decisions.

This work demonstrates the ability of health monitoring systems and condition based maintenance to affect supply ordering decisions. The development of trade-spaces within operating environments is demonstrated along with the ability to conduct cost benefit analyses.