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Article
Publication date: 7 June 2022

Mary Ashley Stanton, Jason Anderson, John M. Dickens and Lance Champagne

The purpose of this research is to explore the utility of autonomous transport across two independent airframe maintenance operations at a single location.

673

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to explore the utility of autonomous transport across two independent airframe maintenance operations at a single location.

Design/methodology/approach

This study leveraged discrete event simulation that encompassed real-world conditions on a United States Air Force flight line. Though the Theory of Constraints (TOC) lens, a high-demand, human-controlled delivery asset is analyzed and the impact of introducing an autonomous rover delivery vehicle is assessed. The authors’ simulations explored varying numbers and networks of rovers as alternative sources of delivery and evaluated these resources’ impact against current flight line operations.

Findings

This research indicates that the addition of five autonomous rovers can significantly reduce daily expediter delivery tasks, which results in additional expertise necessary to manage and execute flight line operations. The authors assert that this relief would translate into enhancements in aircraft mission capable rates, which could increase overall transport capacity and cascade into faster cargo delivery times, systemwide. By extension, the authors suggest overall inventory management could be improved through reduction in transportation shipping time variance, which enhances the Department of Defense’s overall supply chain resilience posture.

Originality/value

When compared against existing practices, this novel research provides insight into actual flight line movement and the potential benefits of an alternative autonomous delivery system. Additionally, the research measures the potential savings in the workforce and vehicle use that exceeds the cost of the rovers and their employment.

Details

Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-6439

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 6 December 2021

Thomas R. O'Neal, John M. Dickens, Lance E. Champagne, Aaron V. Glassburner, Jason R. Anderson and Timothy W. Breitbach

Forecasting techniques improve supply chain resilience by ensuring that the correct parts are available when required. In addition, accurate forecasts conserve precious resources…

1032

Abstract

Purpose

Forecasting techniques improve supply chain resilience by ensuring that the correct parts are available when required. In addition, accurate forecasts conserve precious resources and money by avoiding new start contracts to produce unforeseen part requests, reducing labor intensive cannibalization actions and ensuring consistent transportation modality streams where changes incur cost. This study explores the effectiveness of the United States Air Force’s current flying hour-based demand forecast by comparing it with a sortie-based demand forecast to predict future spare part needs.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a correlation analysis to show that demand for reparable parts on certain aircraft has a stronger correlation to the number of sorties flown than the number of flying hours. The effect of using the number of sorties flown instead of flying hours is analyzed by employing sorties in the United States Air Force (USAF)’s current reparable parts forecasting model. A comparative analysis on D200 forecasting error is conducted across F-16 and B-52 fleets.

Findings

This study finds that the USAF could improve its reparable parts forecast, and subsequently part availability, by employing a sortie-based demand rate for particular aircraft such as the F-16. Additionally, our findings indicate that forecasts for reparable parts on aircraft with low sortie count flying profiles, such as the B-52 fleet, perform better modeling demand as a function of flying hours. Thus, evidence is provided that the Air Force should employ multiple forecasting techniques across its possessed, organically supported aircraft fleets. The improvement of the forecast and subsequent decrease in forecast error will be presented in the Results and Discussion section.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited by the data-collection environment, which is only reported on an annual basis and is limited to 14 years of historical data. Furthermore, some observations were not included because significant data entry errors resulted in unusable observations.

Originality/value

There are few studies addressing the time measure of USAF reparable component failures. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no studies that analyze spare component demand as a function of sortie numbers and compare the results of forecasts made on a sortie-based demand signal to the current flying hour-based approach to spare parts forecasting. The sortie-based forecast is a novel methodology and is shown to outperform the current flying hour-based method for some aircraft fleets.

Details

Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-6439

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 19 April 2022

Jonathan Slottje, Jason Anderson, John M. Dickens and Adam D. Reiman

Pilot upgrade training is critical to aircraft and passenger safety. This study aims to identify variances in the US Air Force C-130J pilot upgrade training based on geographic…

702

Abstract

Purpose

Pilot upgrade training is critical to aircraft and passenger safety. This study aims to identify variances in the US Air Force C-130J pilot upgrade training based on geographic location and provide a model to enhance policy that will impact future pilot training efforts that lower cost and increase operator quality and proficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

This research employed a mixed-method approach. First, the authors collected data and analyzed 90 C-130J pilots' aviation records and then contextualized this analysis with interviews of experts. Finally, the authors present a modified version of Six Sigma's define–measure–analyze–improve–control (DMAIC) that identifies and reduces the variances in C-130J pilot training, translating into higher quality outcomes.

Findings

The results indicate significant statistical variances across geographically separated C-130J pilot training organizations. This leads some organizations to have higher proficiency levels in specific tasks and others with comparative deficiencies. Additionally, the data analysis in this study enabled a recommended number of flight hours in several distinct categories that should be obtained before upgrading a pilot to aircraft commander to enhance standards.

Research limitations/implications

This research was limited to C-130J pilot upgrades, but these results can be implemented within any field that utilizes hours as a measure of experience. Implications from this research can be employed to scope policy that will influence pilot training requirements across all airframes in civilian and military aviation.

Originality/value

This research proposes a process improvement methodology that could be immediately implemented within the C-130J community and, more importantly, in any upgrade training where humans advance into higher echelons of a profession.

Details

Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-6439

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 7 October 2020

Adam J. Brubakken, John M. Dickens, Jason Anderson and William Cunningham

This paper aims to explore effective supply chain principles, through the theory of transaction cost economics, as measures to improve current contingency pharmaceutical item…

1145

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore effective supply chain principles, through the theory of transaction cost economics, as measures to improve current contingency pharmaceutical item shortfalls in the Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) Contingency Pharmaceutical Programme.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research, AFMS contingency pharmaceutical data was collected from various databases, including the Joint Medical Asset Repository, Medical Contingency Requirements Workflow and the Medical Requirements List. Through the methodology of cost-benefit analysis, alternative sourcing and fulfilment practices are evaluated.

Findings

The findings of this research indicate that the application of centralized purchasing principles, in an effort to leverage prime vendor contract fill rates for shortage items, can lead to 12%–17% increases in pharmaceutical material availability across the programme.

Originality/value

This research clearly shows that consolidating demand for shortage items across Active Duty War Reserve Material assemblages, though applications of centralized purchasing principles that leverage prime vendor contract fill rates, can lead to substantial increases in material availability at costs that justify the calculated benefits.

Details

Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-6439

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Book part
Publication date: 9 December 2003

Anna Kaladiouk

The accounts of moral reform that nineteenth-century convicts offered the officials in charge were frequently characterized by such uniformity that it caused Dickens to mistrust…

Abstract

The accounts of moral reform that nineteenth-century convicts offered the officials in charge were frequently characterized by such uniformity that it caused Dickens to mistrust their sincerity and to brand them scornfully as “pattern penitence.” Unlike Dickens, however, prison officials were more willing to credit the questionable authenticity of “patterned” repentance. The paper argues that rather than an effect of personal gullibility, reformers’ attitudes can be seen as an outcome of specific interpretative strategies which, in turn, constituted a response to several institutional challenges facing the nineteenth-century Penitentiary.

Details

Punishment, Politics and Culture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-072-2

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Article
Publication date: 9 April 2018

Gail Longworth and Jerome Carson

The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of the novelist Charles Dickens.

134

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of the novelist Charles Dickens.

Design/methodology/approach

Several biographies and articles about the life of Charles Dickens were examined, to see if there was evidence that he experienced mental health problems.

Findings

While Dickens has been acclaimed for his ability to authentically portray the living conditions of the poor in the nineteenth-century Britain, there is comparatively little historical record of the fact that he may have experienced bipolar disorder. This paper suggests that he displayed many of the characteristic symptoms of bipolar.

Research limitations/implications

The story of Dickens’ own childhood is an amazing example of personal resilience. It no doubt enhanced the quality of his writing, but it may also have “sown the seeds” of a later mental illness.

Practical implications

So much attention has been focused on the colourful characters from Dickens’ novels, but little on the problems of the man himself.

Social implications

The story of Charles Dickens is as fascinating as any of the fictional characters he created, if not even more intriguing. His story confirms the link between writers, creativity and mood disorders.

Originality/value

Given the huge attention and worldwide acclaim paid to the books of Charles Dickens, which have inspired numerous films as well as musicals, it is surprising how little attention has been paid to the author himself and his struggles with mental illness.

Details

Mental Health and Social Inclusion, vol. 22 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-8308

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Book part
Publication date: 19 February 2020

John Edmondson

Antonioni, Berger, Magritte and Sontag, with their respective challenges to our perceptions of what is real and unreal, set the scene for a discussion of the tension between…

Abstract

Antonioni, Berger, Magritte and Sontag, with their respective challenges to our perceptions of what is real and unreal, set the scene for a discussion of the tension between current policies and norms in higher education systems and the increasingly important need to introduce true interdisciplinarity in university programmes – specifically, here, with regard to the role of the humanities in business-related courses. It is argued that uncertainty and imperfection are key signposts to creativity and innovation. Uncertainty demands the constant search for possibility; imperfection provides the constant opportunity to improve and is therefore the inspiration for innovation. In an exploration focussing principally on the various potentialities of the study of literature, it is suggested that many initiatives to introduce the arts into non-humanities programmes have a common and significant limitation in that they are defined by a specific purpose – by an understandable and, in our current higher education environments, an inevitable need to specify what ‘impact’ the intervention will have on the skills and employability of the student. However, something much more radical is needed if what George Eliot called the ‘vital connections of knowledge’ are to be truly made, and the radical adjustment required runs directly counter to a culture that is dominated by the compulsion to demonstrate impact, set measurable targets and prioritize practical application.

Details

Innovation and the Arts: The Value of Humanities Studies for Business
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-886-5

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Article
Publication date: 1 May 1972

Muriel Hutton

ONE MUST BEGIN with Dickens. A chapter by Christopher Hibbert in Charles Dickens, 1812–1870: centenary volume, edited by E. W. F. Tomlin, and The London of Charles Dickens

88

Abstract

ONE MUST BEGIN with Dickens. A chapter by Christopher Hibbert in Charles Dickens, 1812–1870: centenary volume, edited by E. W. F. Tomlin, and The London of Charles Dickens, published by London Transport with aid from the Dickens Fellowship, make a similar study here superfluous; both are illustrated, the latter giving instructions for reaching surviving Dickensian buildings. Neither warns the reader of Dickens's conscious and unconscious imaginative distortion, considered in Humphrey House's The Dickens World. Dickens himself imagined Captain Cuttle hiding in Switzerland and Paul Dombey's wild waves saying ‘Paris’; ‘the association between the writing and the place of writing is so curiously strong in my mind.’ Author and character may be in two places at once. ‘I could not listen at my fireside, for five minutes to the outer noises, but it was borne into my ears that I was dead.’ (Our Mutual Friend)

Details

Library Review, vol. 23 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

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Article
Publication date: 1 December 1998

Eric Glasgow

The enormous growth in publishing in Victorian England is surveyed from its origins in the eighteenth century to the demise, or survival, of principal publishing houses in the…

676

Abstract

The enormous growth in publishing in Victorian England is surveyed from its origins in the eighteenth century to the demise, or survival, of principal publishing houses in the twentieth century. The major publishers ‐ Longman, Murray, Smith Elder, Chapman and Hall, Colburn, Bentley, Heinemann, Methuen and Macmillan ‐ are discussed in relation to their authors and publishing successes and failures. The relation between the full‐length book and the major literary journals is discussed and the capitalist, risk taking nature of publishing as a commercial enterprise is emphasised.

Details

Library Review, vol. 47 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

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Article
Publication date: 8 May 2009

John Theis and Amitabh S. Dutta

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dickens et al. model of bank holding company dividend policy. They identified five explanatory factors in a sample of bank holding…

3387

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dickens et al. model of bank holding company dividend policy. They identified five explanatory factors in a sample of bank holding companies (BHCs). Banking companies typically pay larger dividends and more often than industrial firms. Investors often look at the dividends as being important return variables.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a sample of 99 firms with 2006 data from governmental reports and Yahoo is used in regression equations to test the relationship of the five identified variables with dividend yields. The analysis is extended to investigate non‐linearities between dividend yield and insider ownership.

Findings

The paper finds that the original model is robust, but not all variables keep their significance. Insider holdings have a non‐linear relationship with dividend yields.

Practical implications

The significant factors affecting bank dividend policy help dividend seeking investors find BHCs that return higher dividend yields.

Originality/value

This paper reveals a non‐linear link between insider holdings and dividend yields among BHCs.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

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