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Power plant projects are very complex and encounter serious cost overruns worldwide. Their cost overrun risks are not independent but interrelated in many cases, having structural relationships among each other. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to establish the complex structural relationships of risks involved.

In total, 76 published articles from the previous literature are reviewed using the content analysis method. Three risk networks in different phases of power plant projects are depicted based on literature review and case studies. The possible methods of solving these risk networks are also discussed.

The study finds critical cost overrun risks and develops risk networks for the procurement, civil and mechanical works of power plant projects. It identifies potential models to assess cost overrun risks based on the developed risk networks. The literature review also revealed some research gaps in the cost overrun risk management of power plants and similar infrastructure projects.

This study will assist project risk managers to understand the potential risks and their relationships to prevent and mitigate cost overruns for future power plant projects. It will also facilitate decision-makers developing a risk management framework and controlling projects’ cost overruns.

The study presents conceptual risk networks in different phases of power plant projects for comprehending the root causes of cost overruns. A comparative discussion of the relevant models available in the literature is presented, where their potential applications, limitations and further improvement areas are discussed to solve the developed risk networks for modeling cost overrun risks.

The level of deterioration of educational facilities, such as leaking classroom roofs, inadequate good seats, obsolete offices, broken shutters and doors, outdated school buildings, power plants and office equipment like ICT media, laboratories, offices and workshops, despite the involvement of Alumni association in the maintenance of educational facilities for the effective actualization of school objectives was a worrisome nightmare in Kogi state. This, therefore, prompted the researchers to explore the Alumni’s participation in plant maintenance for effective implementation of the universal basic education (UBE) programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state. The purpose of this study was guided by the research question which stated that to what extent does the Alumni Association participate in plant maintenance for effective implementation of the UBE programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state?

A quantitative research approach using a descriptive survey was adopted for the study. The sample was drawn using a proportionate stratified sampling technique comprising 387 participants which consisted of 191 (49%) urban junior secondary school principals and 196 (51%) rural principals in selected UBE junior secondary schools. Alumni’s Participation in Plant Maintenance Questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The data were analysed with the aid of mean and standard deviation for the research question and z-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance and the value of z-crit. of 1.96 was used to determine the rejection or otherwise of the hypotheses.

The descriptive analysis revealed that the average mean set of 2.64 pointed to the fact that the respondents averagely agreed that there was a high extent to which Alumni participate in plant maintenance in urban than rural areas for effective implementation of the UBE programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state. This indicates that Alumni contribute to the management of UBE schools in Kogi state, especially in the areas of funding, infrastructural facilities, discipline, politics and quality control. This finding also shows that the contributions of the alumni to educational institutions are still unclear if they have made contributions to education in some areas and none in other areas making their relevance to plant maintenance unclear.

In terms of practical implications, the study has contributed to knowledge in that it is the first of this form of a study carried out in Kogi state, and as such the findings of the research will make contributions to the physique of information on plant maintenance for the profitable implementation of the UBE programme in Kogi state. Besides, the degree of plant preservation for the implementation of the UBE programme among applicable stakeholders in Kogi state is nevertheless at a low extent.

Researchers have conducted studies that show how non-state Alumni members contribute to the administration of education across different states. Some of these studies revealed that Alumni members have assisted schools in the provision of teaching and learning materials at the senior secondary or tertiary education level. There are no sufficient studies to show how these Alumni members have contributed to the implementation of the free education programme, especially in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state and this is the gap this study intends to fill.

Output from the Irish Dairy Industry has grown rapidly since the abolition of quotas in 2015, with processors investing heavily in capacity expansion to deal with the extra milk volumes. Further capacity gains may be achieved by extending the processing season into the winter, a key enabler for which being the reduction of duration of the winter maintenance overhaul period. This paper aims to investigate if Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques can be used to enhance operational maintenance performance, thereby releasing additional processing capacity.

Combining the Six-Sigma Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC) methodology and the structured approach of Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) widely used in process industries creates a novel hybrid model that promises substantial improvement in maintenance overhaul execution. This paper presents a case study applying the DMAIC/TAM model to Ireland’s largest dairy processing site to optimise the annual maintenance shutdown. The objective was to deliver a 30% reduction in the duration of the overhaul, enabling an extension of the processing season.

Application of the DMAIC/TAM hybrid resulted in process enhancements, employee engagement and a clear roadmap for the operations team. Project goals were delivered, and original objectives exceeded, resulting in €8.9m additional value to the business and a reduction of 36% in the duration of the overhaul.

The results demonstrate that the model provides a structure that promotes systematic working and a continuous improvement focus that can have substantial benefits for wider industry. Opportunities for further model refinement were identified and will enhance performance in subsequent overhauls.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the structure and tools of DMAIC and TAM have been combined into a hybrid methodology and applied in an Irish industrial setting.

Mr. Sajjan Jindal, MD of JVSL (nos JSW) wanted to bring the latest technology of iron making into India. His project went to several cost overrun and time overrun due to several foreseen and unforessen circumstances. This case discusses the issues new technology introduction in iron making area, problem faced by inexperienced contractor. It shows the need for proper risk management is required. It also shows the criticality of the project does not mean time cost trade off, but many other factors like reliability of the equipment, process and reliability of the equipment and plants.

The main purpose of this research is to (1) prioritise key determinants of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) readiness assessment and (2) evaluate causal relationships among those determinants and associated sub-criteria based on inputs from industry experts.

The methodology involved two phases: (1) an MCDM approach for determining causal relationships among determinants and (2) empirical validation of findings from the first phase using industry experts' inputs.

It was found that while the choice of I4.0 technologies is important, organisational factors are also critical, as evidenced by the ranking of the “Strategy and Organisation” determinant as the highest rank prominent determinant. Also, the ranking of the sub-criteria within each determinant shows the importance of several organisational influencing and resulting sub-criteria.

This research extends the existing literature on I4.0 by demonstrating the prioritisation of determinants and delineating causal relationships among them and associated sub-criteria as a basis for developing I4.0 adoption guidelines. This research is limited to the specific scope of determinants selected/considered and experts' inputs from the Sri Lankan manufacturing sector. Future studies could consider extending this research into a broader global manufacturing context.

Prioritisation and causal relationships of I4.0 readiness assessment determinants, supported with inputs from functional managers and industry experts, could be used to guide practitioners in developing guidelines for I4.0 adoption in a phased manner.

This research provides a re-evaluation and validation of a selected I4.0 readiness assessment framework from the perspectives of interdependencies and casual relationships among its determinants and sub-criteria, based on inputs from industry experts as a basis for developing guidelines for I4.0 adoption.

Madan Mohanka set up Tega Industries Ltd in 1976 to manufacture abrasion-resistant rubber mill lining products used in the mining and mineral processing industries. In 2006, as part of its inorganic expansion strategy, Tega bought a mill-liner company in South Africa. Buoyed by this growth, two acquisitions were made in Australia and Chile in the year 2011. However, post-acquisition, several managerial, legal and commercial problems crept up in its manufacturing facilities in Chile, leading to financial downturn in Tega's fortunes in 2016 and compelling it to either plan a revival or divest its interest in its Chilean Plant.

Major maintenance projects are often regarded as maintenance activities regardless of the projects' complexity and scale. Consequently, very scarce research attention has hitherto been paid to the critical skills required when undertaking these projects. More specifically, the body of relevant knowledge is deprived of a study focusing on maintenance projects within the energy sector. In view of this shortcoming, this research aims to examine the critical project management (PM) skills required to deliver major maintenance projects within the energy sector.

Based on a quantitative research strategy, this study addressed the knowledge gap through a cross-sectional survey of professionals involved in the delivery of major maintenance projects in the United Kingdom's (UK) energy sector. Data obtained were analyzed via descriptive (e.g. frequencies, mean and standard deviation [SD]) and inferential statistical analyses (One sample t-test and exploratory factor analysis (EFA)).

Out of the 45 PM skills identified in the literature and examined by the respondents, the results obtained from the One sample t-test (based on p (1-tailed) = 0.05) showed that 37 were considered to be at least “important,” accounting for 80.4% of all the skills identified. EFA revealed a clustering of the PM skills items into seven components: “skills related to work scheduling and coordination”; “communication, risk, safety and stakeholder management skills”; “quality assurance skills”; “people management skills”; “skills related to forecasting scope and duration of outage”; “implementation of processes and time management skills” and “technical/engineering skills and experience pertaining to the outage and local site knowledge.”

This study has identified and contributed to the limited state-of-the-art skills project managers must possess to manage major maintenance projects in the energy sector successfully. The findings would be useful to organizations within the energy sector in ensuring that the organizations have suitable personnel in place to deliver major maintenance projects on the organizations' assets.

This study aims to examine the relationship between advertisement expenditure and firm performance as well as the moderating effects of firm age and size on this relationship.

Twenty-eight selected companies listed on the Nigerian stock exchange were examined. The study used multiple regression, a quantitative research method, to capture both the direct and moderating effects.

The findings show that advertisement has a positive relationship with sales but an insignificant relationship with return on asset. Furthermore, the results indicate that larger firms outperform smaller ones when using advertisements to enhance their sales. On the contrary, there is no significant difference between the use of advertisement by young and older firms in improving financial performance.

Due to the often-wrong use of resource base view in the advertisement–performance relationship and contradiction in research findings, this paper re-conceptualize advertisement as a necessary investment (just like plant and equipment) but not an investment that provide strategic value. The paper also makes novel argument by theorizing a negative relationship between advertisement and firms’ performance in the Nigerian context.

The purpose of this paper, applying concepts in the plant-based food sector, is a focus on the competitive rival trap for startup firms, with their initial advantage for under-served market segments, only to be overtaken by scale, speed, and brands of incumbent brand firms. As a case study of industry transformation, the food production sector illustrates how organizational innovation brings new forms of rivalry, from the farm gate to the kitchen plate. As a result, startups face a rivalry trap, if unable to scale quickly, as incumbents reframe their strategic response with startup acquisitions, corporate incubators or alliance partnerships consumer demand.

This paper outlines the features of precision agriculture, a new paradigm for agriculture and food production, requiring new competences and skillsets in the protein revolution, including issues like virus, bacteria and the molecular structure of food groups, animal breeding and veterinary medicine. Plant-based foods is used as a case study for startups and the rivalry trap.

The emergence of plant-based foods is a case study of market opportunity and creative destruction, where the potential market varies from $25bn to $72bn, and growing faster in the dairy sector. However, food incumbents bring new strategic responses and a rivalry trap, where startups must gain scale quickly in capabilities, talent and marketing prowess, often exploiting demand in market niches unimpeded by incumbent rivals.

Startups in biological sciences face massive challenges to increase scale and scope, even with unique intellectual property.

Startup firms need multidisciplinary management teams with a global outlook.

Plant-based foods form part of the protein revolution but face challenges of scale, cost competitiveness and taste, despite advantages for climate mitigation.

The impact of technological and science applications has blurred the traditional concept of industry boundary, with huge variations in the intangible knowledge component in their core activities and capabilities. Underlying variations imply that not all industries have similar supply demand conditions, with variations in input costs, capital intensity and innovation needs, with strategic implications for the rivalry trap.

The purpose of this article is to determine safety culture indicators that can improve the health and safety performance of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) contractors in Ghana.

A three-round Delphi method was used. The first round consisted of 31 experts out of which 18 of them rated their agreements with a set of 87 potential safety culture indicators using a 10-point Likert scale of importance (1 = important and 10 = very important) and the 16 experts who completed the final round were given the opportunity to suggest other indicators. The 87 indicators were categorised into 14 core health and safety elements. Indicators that attained a group median value of 5–10 for 50% or more expert ratings were accepted.

At the end of the third round, a consensus was reached on the indicators when they attracted median scores of 5–10 for at least 50% or more of the health and safety experts rated the indicators between 5 and 10. Out of a total of 87 indicators at the start of the Delphi process, the consensus was reached on 70 that were retained.

The health and safety experts were not given the opportunity to add new indicators to the structured questionnaire until the third round.

This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to have a consensus by health and safety experts on leading indicator metrics of positive culture of construction safety in Ghana for improved SME construction company’s health and safety performance in Ghana. If these indicators are adopted and used effectively in Ghana, they would ensure positive culture of construction safety and subsequently help to protect construction workers.