Defining product-service network configurations and location roles: A current and future state analysis framework for international engineering operations

Many manufacturing firms have developed a service dimension to their product portfolio. In response to this growing trend of servitisation, organisations, often involved in complex, long-lifecycle product-service system (PSS) provision, need to reconfigure their global engineering networks to support integrated PSS offerings. Drawing on parallel concepts in 'production' networks, the idea of 'location role' now becomes increasingly complex, in terms of service delivery. As new markets develop, locations in a specific region may need to grow/adapt engineering service 'competencies' along the value chain, from design and build to support and service, in order to serve future location-specific requirements and, potentially, those requirements of the overall network. The purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of how best to design complex multi-organisational engineering service networks, through extension of the 'production' network location role concept to a PSS context, capturing both traditional engineering 'design and build' and engineering 'service' requirements. Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Policy as a struggle for meaning: disentangling knowledge translation across international health contexts

Over the last decade, research in medical science has focused on knowledge translation and diffusion of best practices to enable improved health outcomes. However, there has been less attention given to the role of policy in influencing the translation of best practice across different national contexts. This paper argues that the underlying set of public discourses of healthcare policy significantly influences its development with implications for the dissemination of best practices. Our research uses Critical Discourse Analysis to examine the policy discourses surrounding the treatment of stroke across Canada and the U.K. It focuses in specific on how concepts of knowledge translation, user empowerment, and service innovation construct different accounts of the health service in the two countries. These findings provide an important yet overlooked starting point for understanding the role of policy development in knowledge transfer and the translation of science into health practice. © 2011 Operational Research Society. All rights reserved.