Public Management and Policy

Automation, Standardisation and Product Quality at Toyota: A Comparative Analysis of United States Vehicle Recall Records, 1984-2026

The Toyota Production System is widely credited with setting the modern benchmark for manufacturing quality, yet the claim is usually supported by case description rather than by measurement against competitors. This study tests it directly. Using the complete safety recall register maintained by the United States Nati...

Digitalization in Industrial Facilities and the Classification of Maintenance Types: A Review

The digitalization of industrial facilities, driven by Industry 4.0 technologies, is fundamentally changing how production assets are monitored, modeled, and managed, and its strongest effect is felt in maintenance management, where traditional corrective and time-based practices are giving way to data-driven, conditio...

Maintenance modelling of a multi-state critical system subject to inspection defaults and errors

This study develops a maintenance policy that integrates inspections and preventive replacement and that is specifically designed for systems with three distinct stages of degradation. The proposed approach distinguishes itself from previous models by accounting for: external factors that may impede the execution of...

Contractor Safety Context

This companion brief examines the safety context surrounding a nationwide study of multiskilling in U.S. construction. It draws on 2024 safety data voluntarily reported by 15 participating contractors, representing approximately 33.2 million employee-hours, along with site-visit observations and a review of the potenti...

on Dynamic Investigation and Closed-loop Management of Safety Hazards in Construction Sites

Safety Management Systems in U.S. Trucking: Gaps Between Regulatory Requirements and Operational Practice

Commercial trucking fatalities in the United States have increased over the past decade despite a progressively tightening regulatory environment, suggesting a fundamental misalignment between what federal safety rules mandate and what carriers implement in practice. This article investigates the misalignment across th...