Search results

This study investigates the integration of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies with condition-based maintenance (CBM) in upstream oil and gas (O&G) operations, focussing on developing countries like Nigeria. The research identifies barriers to this integration and suggests solutions, intending to provide practical insights for improving operational efficiency in the O&G sector.

The study commenced with an exhaustive review of extant literature to identify existing barriers to I4.0 implementation and contextualise the study. Subsequent to this foundational step, primary data are gathered through the administration of carefully constructed questionnaires targeted at professionals specialised in maintenance within the upstream O&G sector. A semi-structured interview was also conducted to elicit more nuanced, contextual insights from these professionals. Analytically, the collected data were subjected to descriptive statistical methods for summarisation and interpretation with a measurement model to define the relationships between observed variables and latent construct. Moreover, the Relative Importance Index was utilised to systematically prioritise and rank the key barriers to I4.0 integration to CBM within the upstream O&G upstream sector.

The most ranked obstacles in integrating I4.0 technologies to the CBM strategy in the O&G industry are lack of budget and finance, limited engineering and technological resources, lack of support from executives and leaders of the organisations and lack of competence. Even though the journey of digitalisation has commenced in the O&G industry, there are limited studies in this area.

The study serves as both an academic cornerstone and a practical guide for the operational integration of I4.0 technologies within Nigeria's O&G upstream sector. Specifically, it provides an exhaustive analysis of the obstacles impeding effective incorporation into CBM practices. Additionally, the study contributes actionable insights for industry stakeholders to enhance overall performance and achieve key performance indices (KPIs).

Battery integration with renewable energy and conventional power grid is common practice in smart grid systems and provides higher operational flexibility. Abundant issues and challenges to the Indian smart grid while integrating renewable energy and storage technology will give timely emphasis to grasp uninterrupted power supply in forthcoming trend. Hence, this paper aims to acknowledge different barriers of battery integration and evaluate them to develop approaches for restricting their influence.

A multi-model approach is used to illustrate how these challenges are interrelated by systematically handling expert views and helps to chronologically assemble various issues from the greatest severe to the slightest severe ones. Further, these barriers are grouped using the cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to the classification analysis (MICMAC) study grounded on their driving and dependence power. Also, hypothesis testing was done to validate the obtained model.

It provides a complete thoughtful on directional interrelationships between the barriers and delivers the best possible solution for the active operation of the smart grid and its performance.

There is a significant requirement for high-tech inventions outside the transmission grid to function for the integration of renewables and storage systems.

The model will support policymakers in building knowledgeable decisions while chronologically rejecting the challenges of battery integration in smart grid systems to improve power grid performance.

Based on author’s best knowledge, there is hardly any research that explicitly explains the framework for the barriers of battery integration in grid for developing countries like India. It is one of the first attempts to understand the fundamental barriers for battery integration. This study adds significantly to the literature on the energy sector by capturing the perspective of various stakeholders.

The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry encounter substantial risks and challenges in its evolution towards sustainable development. International businesses, multinational AEC organisations, technical professionals, project and portfolio management organisations face global connectivity challenges between business units, especially during the outbreak of novel coronavirus pandemic, to manage construction megaprojects (CMPs). That raises the need to manage global connectivity as a main strategic goal of global organisations. This paper aims to investigate barriers to integrating lean construction (LC) practices and integrated project delivery (IPD) on CMPs towards the global integrated delivery (GID) transformative initiatives and develop future of work (FOW) global initiatives in contemporary multinational AEC organisations.

A two-stage quantitative and qualitative research approach is adopted. The qualitative research methodology consists of a literature review to appraise barriers to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs. Barriers are arranged into six-factor clusters (FCs), with a conceptualisation of LeanIPD&GID, GID strategy placements and FOW global initiatives with multiple validations. This analysis also involved semi-structured interviews and focus group techniques. Stage two consisted of an empirical questionnaire survey that shaped the foundation of analysis and findings of 230 respondents from 23 countries with extensive cosmopolitan experience in the construction of megaprojects. The survey examined a set of 28 barriers to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs resulting from a detailed analysis of extant literature after validation. Descriptive and inferential statistical tests were exploited for data analysis, percentage scoring analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and eigenvalues were used to elaborate on clustered factors.

The research conceptualised LeanIPD&GID principles and proposed GID strategy placements for LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives and FOW global initiatives. It concluded that the most significant barriers to integration of LeanIPD&GID on CMPs are “lack of mandatory building information modelling (BIM) and LC industry standards and regulations by governments”, “lack of involvement and support of governments”, “high costs of BIM software licenses”, “resistance of industry to change from traditional working practices” and “high initial investment in staff training costs of BIM”. PCA revealed the most significant FCs are “education and knowledge-related barriers”, “project objectives-related barriers” and “attitude-related barriers”. Awareness of BIM in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is higher than LC and LC awareness is higher than IPD knowledge. Whilst BIM adoption in the MENA region is higher than LC; the second is still taking its first steps, whilst IPD has little implementation. LeanBIM is slightly integrated, whilst LeanIPD integration is almost not present.

The research findings, conclusion and recommendation and proposed GID strategy placements for LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs. This will allow project key stakeholders to place emphasis on tackling LeanIPD&GID barriers identified in this research and commence GID strategies. The study has provided effective practical strategies for enhancing the integration of LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives on CMPs.

This paper reports on one segment of a research project which investigates what faculty members perceive to be acting as barriers in their attempts to integrate [information and communication] technology into their teaching at a laptop university. A web-based questionnaire was used to collect information from 69/288 (24%) faculty members from a small U.A.E. university. From the data gathered, patterns and associations emerged from which the researcher is able provide recommendations as to what type of interventions and programs could be provided to increase current levels of teaching with technology.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate effects of two integrative mechanisms of third-party logistics (3PL) integration (i.e. information sharing and process coordination) between users and providers on relationship satisfaction, and further explores how partnership-surrounding (e.g. legal unprotectability) and partnership-specific barriers (e.g. measurement difficulty and cooperation difficulty) influence 3PL integration in the context of Chinese 3PL practices.

Using data collected from 247 3PL users in China, this study uses the structural equation modeling method to empirically examine the relationship among partnership-surrounding/specific barriers, 3PL integration and relationship satisfaction.

The results show that information sharing has no significant effect on relationship satisfaction, while process coordination has a positive effect on relationship satisfaction and partially mediates the relationship between information sharing and relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, as partnership-specific barrier, measurement difficulty and cooperation difficulty are negatively related to information sharing and process coordination. Surprisingly, as partnership-surrounding barrier, legal unprotectability is not significantly related to information sharing but is positively related to process coordination.

As a comprehensive study on 3PL user-provider relationship in China, this study extends existing 3PL literature by providing evidence about the importance of 3PL integration and different types of barriers to 3PL integration, also providing managerial implications for 3PL users, providers, law and regulation makers about how to better implement 3PL integration in China.

Implementation of supply chain management techniques requires thorough integration of processes between supply chain partners in all functional areas, including sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution. Yet insufficient attention has been given to the means by which firms achieve high levels of integration. This study aims to examine moderators impacting supply chain integration barriers.

Supply chain integration drivers and moderating barriers to supply chain integration were identified by extensive search of the literature, and in‐depth interviews with supply chain managers. A survey was developed to measure levels of supply chain integration drivers, barriers to supply chain integration, and firm performance. The measures were validated using EFA, and the responses analyzed using multiple regression.

The study finds that firms with a desire to improve, operating in a challenging competitive environment typically experience high levels of performance. Further, barriers to supply chain integration can actually increase the firm's ability to achieve firm performance as the firm is required to make greater efforts to overcome those barriers and develop effective supply chain linkages.

This study answers a call for additional research into factors that enable and inhibit supply chain integration, and offers an empirical analysis of the moderating effect of supply chain integration barriers on the relationship between integration drivers and firm performance.

The integration of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is in the nascent stage and promises to achieve new optimums in operational excellence. This study aims to empirically examine the enablers, barriers, benefits and application of I4.0 technologies in LSS and I4.0 integration.

A pilot survey was chosen as an appropriate methodology, as LSS and I4.0 integration is still budding. The survey targeted senior quality management professionals, quality managers, team leaders, LSS Black Belts and operations managers to collect the relevant research data. The questionnaire was sent to 200 respondents and received 53 valid responses.

This study reveals that “top management support” is an essential enabler for LSS and I4.0 integration. The most significant barrier was “poor understanding of data analysis” and “lack of top management support”. The findings further illustrated that LSS and I4.0 integration resulted in greater efficiency, lower operational costs, improved productivity, improved customer satisfaction and improved quality. Regarding I4.0 technology integration at different phases of LSS, the authors noticed that big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are the most prominent technologies used in all phases of LSS implementation.

One of the limitations of this study is the sample size. LSS and I4.0 are emerging concepts; hence, obtaining a larger sample size is difficult. In addition, the study used non-parametric tests to analyse the data. Therefore, future studies should be conducted with large sample sizes across different continents and countries to understand differences in the key findings.

The outcomes of this study can be useful for organisational managers to understand the enablers and barriers before integrating LSS and I4.0 for adoption in their organisations. Secondly, it helps to convince top management and human resource personnel by providing a list of benefits of LSS and I4.0 integration. Finally, it can help decision-makers understand which I4.0 technologies can be used in different stages of LSS methodology.

LSS and I4.0 integration was studied at a conceptual level. This is the first empirical study targeted toward understanding the LSS and I4.0 integration. In addition, this study investigates the application of widely used I4.0 technologies in different phases of LSS.

Integration is a critical success factor for achieving a mature level of e‐government. This research seeks to identify barriers to e‐government integration (EGI).

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 14 consultants with significant experience of e‐government projects. The interview transcripts were analysed by the researcher to identify barriers in EGI.

The findings resulted in a set of 17 barriers which were organised into one of four categories: strategy, technology, policy and organization. Strategy barriers include common e‐government goals and objectives, delivery timeframes, and ownership and governance. Technology barriers include architecture interoperability, data standards and legacy systems. Policy barriers include citizen privacy, data ownership and policy implications. Organization barriers include pace of government reform, legacy government processes and management and technical skills.

One of the limitations of the research is that it involved in‐depth interviews with a relatively small number of individuals. In addition, improvements in research procedure, such as the use of multiple interviewers, will go some way towards increasing the reliability of the research findings.

EGI is not simply a technical matter of getting IT systems to talk to each other. Stakeholders should engage in strategic planning and change management.

The paper has identified a set of barriers in e‐government. Certain barriers, specifically in the area of policy, are particular to e‐government projects. A model of EGI, based on a synthesis of government relationships, is also proposed.

This study explores employer perspectives regarding barriers to and responsibility for the workforce integration of skilled immigrants. Specifically, this study assesses employer perceptions of how influential various barriers are to the integration of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in the workplace, uncovers employer perceptions of SIEs competence levels, identifies employer perceptions regarding multiple stakeholders’ levels of responsibility for SIEs integration and explores impactful means to overcome these barriers.

Given Canada’s dependence on SIEs for labour force growth, an online survey was conducted with hiring managers of 99 firms in a mid-sized city in Ontario, Canada.

The results demonstrate that employers shift the onus of responsibility for SIEs integration to other stakeholders (namely, the immigrant or government agencies), require documentation to evaluate human capital attainment of SIEs and may be systemically discriminating against SIEs.

The results indicate a need for documented evidence to validate foreign education and skills previously acquired by SIEs. They advance research by providing a comparative assessment of barriers from the employer’s point of view.

The findings support the notion that employers should strategically partner with specialized private or government agencies to help with efforts to attract and evaluate SIEs.

Given that employers are key decision-makers regarding employment outcomes, this study investigates the underexplored role and perspective of employers in integrating SIEs. Additionally, this study provides both a holistic and a relative assessment of the barriers to and responsibility for SIEs integration, exploring the impact of each factor on employer decision-making.

To develop a structural model based on Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach to analyse the barriers to integration of Lean with Industry 4.0.

Integrated lean and I4.0 is essential for optimising customer value, rapid product design and redesign to comply with customer demand on time. Also, manufacturing processes to be made more flexible, intelligent and agile. In this context, integrated lean and Industry 4.0 barriers were identified and an ISM approach is employed to identify hierarchical structure of barriers and analysed.

The result obtained reflects that barriers “increasing competitive pressure”, “lack of long-term vision”, “lack of management support”, “lack of capital fund” are found to be the important barriers that affect the integration of lean and I4.0.

In the present study, 16 barriers are analysed. In future, additional barriers could be included.

The driving and dependence power of barriers were analysed from ISM model and it provided guidance for practitioners to concentrate on barriers for integrating lean and I4.0.

The idea of developing structural model for analysis of barriers to integration of lean with I4.0 is the original contribution.