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The study examines the remote integration process of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) into the production system and identifies key challenges and mitigating actions for a smoother introduction and integration process.

The study adopts a case study approach to a cyber-physical production system at an industrial technology center using a mobile robot as an AMT.

By applying the plug-and-produce concept, the study exemplifies an AMT's remote integration process into a cyber-physical production system in nine steps. Eleven key challenges and twelve mitigation actions for remote integration are described based on technology–organization–environment theory. Finally, a remote integration framework is proposed to facilitate AMT integration into production systems.

The study presents results purely from a practical perspective, which could reduce dilemmas in early decision-making related to smart production. The proposed framework can improve flexibility and decrease the time needed to configure new AMTs in existing production systems.

The area of remote integration for AMT has not been addressed in depth before. The consequences of lacking in-depth studies for remote integration imply that current implementation processes do not match the needs and the existing situation in the industry and often underestimate the complexity of considering both technological and organizational issues. The new integrated framework can already be deployed by industry professionals in their efforts to integrate new technologies with shorter time to volume and increased quality but also as a means for training employees in critical competencies required for remote integration.

This study aims to explore the effect of human resource (HR) strategy (e.g. empowerment and teamwork) on green supply chain integration (e.g. green supplier and customer integration), which further leads to economic performance. Moreover, the authors examined the moderating effects of information systems and mutual trust on the relationship between HR strategy and green supply chain integration.

Using the empirical data from 213 Chinese manufacturing firms, this study uses structural equation modeling and hierarchical regressions to examine the conceptual model.

The study’s findings reveal that empowerment and teamwork positively enhance green supplier and customer integration. Green supplier and customer integration are positively related to economic performance. Moreover, information systems positively moderate the relationship between empowerment and green supplier integration but negatively moderate the relationship between teamwork and green supplier/customer integration. Mutual trust positively moderates the relationship between empowerment and green supplier integration and the relationship between teamwork and green customer integration.

This study extends the existing understanding regarding how to enhance green supply chain integration by adopting an appropriate HR strategy in the context of different levels of information systems and mutual trust.

This study aims to explore the managerial conception of the determinants and barriers of sustainability integration into management control systems (MCS) of manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka. Although existing literature has explored the factors that influence the adoption of specific management controls to handle environmental and social issues, the role of management conception has been underrepresented. Specifically, literature is scarce in identifying contextual and organisational factors that influence corporates beyond mere adoption of controls but to integrate with regular controls, especially in developing countries such as Sri Lanka.

A multiple case study approach has been used to identify the management conception of barriers and enablers for sustainability control integration. The analysis is conducted based on a theoretical framework extending the work of Gond et al. (2012) and George et al. (2016). To obtain an in-depth and multifaceted view, semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers in charge of different functional departments of five manufacturing companies.

The findings identified managers’ perceived factors, such as environmental impact, stakeholder pressure (customer, competitor and regulatory authorities) and top management commitment, showing a clear difference between strongly and weakly integrated companies. Contrary to the literature, domestic regulatory pressure and multinational ownership do not sufficiently drive MCS sustainability integration.

The findings have implications for managers and practitioners to anticipate the potential barriers and determinants of sustainability integration and provide guidance to take proper measures to deal with them when designing and implementing their MCS.

The study adds value to the literature by presenting a theoretical framework based on the triangulation of different theories to recognise the significance of management idea in sustainable integration. Furthermore, because sustainable integration of MCS is a novel idea, this research is one of the earlier attempts to highlight problems from the perspective of developing countries.

In the context of constructing an integrated national strategic system, collaborative innovation among enterprises is the current social focus. Therefore, in order to find the interest relationship between multiple game subjects, to explore the influencing factors of collaborative innovation of civil-military integration enterprises. This paper constructs a collaborative innovation mechanism for military–civilian integration involving four game subjects (military enterprises, private enterprises, local governments, and science and technology intermediaries). It aims to solve and reveal the evolutionary game relationship among the four parties.

To explore the mechanism of military–civilian collaborative innovation involving four players, this study employs game theory and constructs an evolutionary game model for collaborative innovation with the participation of military enterprises, civilian enterprises, local governments, and technology intermediaries. The model reveals the evolutionary game patterns among these four entities, analyzes the impact of various parameters on the evolutionary process of the game system, and numerical simulation is used to show these changes more specifically.

The research findings demonstrate that active government subsidies promote cooperation throughout the system. Moreover, increasing the input-output ratio of research and development (R&D), the rate of technological spillovers, and the R&D investment of civilian enterprises all facilitate the tendency toward cooperation within the system. However, when the government chooses to actively provide subsidies, increasing R&D investment in military enterprises may hinder the tendency toward cooperation. Furthermore, central transfer payments, government punishment from the central government, and an increase in the information conversion rate of technology intermediaries may suppress the rate of cooperation within the system.

Most of the previous studies on the collaborative innovation of military–civilian integration have been tripartite game models between military enterprises, private enterprises, and local governments. In contrast, this study adds science and technology intermediaries on this basis, reveals the evolution mechanism of collaborative innovation of civil-military integration enterprises from the perspective of four-party participation, and analyzes the factors influencing the cooperation of the whole system. The conclusion of this study not only enriches the collaborative innovation evolution mechanism of military–civilian integration enterprises from the perspective of multiple agents but also provides practical guidance for the innovation-driven development of military–civilian integration enterprises.

Upon the realization of the need for guideline in cross-organizational data integration, in an exploratory manner, this study developed a public data governance framework, specifically, the governance for integrated public data (GIPD) framework and identified the influential factors of its successful implementation. This framework was then subjected to an analysis of a real data integration case in the South Korean public sector to test its efficacy.

To develop the GIPD framework, the authors conducted an extensive meta study, focus group interviews and the analytic hierarchy process involving field experts. Further, the authors performed topic modeling on documents from Korean research and development data integration projects, and compared the extracted factors to those of the GIPD to illustrate the latter's usefulness in a real case.

Legislation, policy goals and strategies, operation organization, decision-making council, financial support size and objective, system development and operation, data integration, data generation, system/data standardization and master data management were derived as the 10 important factors in implementing the GIPD framework. The illustrative case of Korea revealed that decision-making council, financial support size and objective, legislation, data generation and data integration were insufficient.

Although this study reveals important findings, it has a few limitations. First, the potential factors for data governance might vary depending on the attribute of the “interviewee” (such as their career or experience period) and the goal and area of GIPD framework building. Second, the inherent limitation of topic modeling in determining topics from groups of extracted keywords means that topics may be interpreted in various ways, depending on the perspective of the expert.

This study is highly significant in that it provides a starting point for discussions on the issue of data integration among public institutions. Therefore, although this study examined public data governance based on R&D data, it will contribute to providing a sufficient guideline for any type of inter-institutional data governance framework, what to discuss and how to discuss between institutions.

The findings are expected to provide a roadmap to formulate practical guidelines on inter-institutional data cooperation and a diagnostic matrix to improve the existing data governance system, especially in the public sector, from the existing practice of empirical analysis using a mixed methodology approach.

Recent construction literature has been focusing more on integrative contracting approaches such as integrated project delivery (IPD). However, conceptual studies on integration in IPD literature are scattered and fragmented, that is, most of the studies only focused on the segmented dimension of integration. A systemic understanding of the concepts of integration in IPD project-based context is still lacking. To fill this gap, this paper analyzes two aspects of integration (dimensions and directions) in IPD literature and explores their extent in construction projects.

Grounded theory review and focus group discussion approaches were employed to perform a thorough conceptual review of the literature, frame the research into the theory and increase the fundamental understanding of the concept of integration in IPD literature.

In this study, IPD integrating techniques were identified and their integration dimensions and directions were discussed. Results show that integration in the project-based environment of IPD is a multidimensional construct. Based on organizational, contractual and operational characteristics of IPD projects, twenty-four integration mechanisms were identified and framed into seven clusters. The integration directions over project life-cycle were demonstrated in three contexts: (1) an on-site construction project, delivered traditionally, (2) an on-site construction project, delivered with IPD and (3) an off-site construction project, delivered with IPD.

This paper gathers the segments of integration into a comprehensive overview, which can help researchers and practitioners explore elements of IPD project success more precisely. A theoretical framework of integration clusters is developed, based on IPD literature. The impact of IPD on on-site versus off-site construction is illustrated from an integration direction perspective. Finally, future areas of studies for researchers and practitioners about the concept of integration in an IPD context are discussed. This paper provides a point of departure for future theoretical and empirical explorations.

This article analyses a major healthcare and social welfare reform establishing new regional and integrated wellbeing services counties in Finland. The authors approach the reform and service integration as a knowledge management (KM) issue and analyse how KM appears and contributes in the context of integrated care, specifically in the process of integrating social and health care.

The article analyses the case organisation's KM initiatives in light of the integrated care literature and recognises the tasks and requirements for effective KM when building integrated health and social care system. The empirical research material for this qualitative study consisted of the case organisation's strategy documents, the results of an external maturity assessment, KM workshop materials and publicly available documentation of the Finnish health and social care reform.

This study identifies the mechanisms by which KM can support health and social services integration. At the macro level, national coordination and regional co-operation require common information structures. At the meso level, a shared regional strategy with shared objectives guides both organisational decision-making and collaboration between professionals. At the micro level, technology supported and data-driven planning of service chains complements the experiences of professionals and may help remove obstacles to integration.

This study contributes to the literature on integrated care by providing a more comprehensive view of the role and tasks of knowledge and KM when reforming health and social services than approaches focussing solely on health informatics and internal efficiency.

Notwithstanding the Geographical Information System (GIS) being a fast-emerging green area of a digital revolution, the available studies focus on different subject areas of application in the construction industry, with no study that clarifies its knowledge strands. Hence, this systematic review analyses GIS core area of application, its system integration patterns, challenges and future directions in the construction industry.

A systematic review approach was employed, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. A total of 60 articles published between 2011 and 2022 were identified, thoroughly reviewed and analysed using thematic analysis.

The analysis revealed spatial planning and design, construction-task tracking, defect detection and safety monitoring as its four main application-based areas. The findings showed that the adoption of GIS technology is rapidly expanding and being utilised more in building projects to visual-track construction activities. The review discovered an integrated pattern involving data flow from a device and window-form application to GIS, the pathways to data exchange between platforms to platforms, where ArcGIS is the most used software. Furthermore, the study highlighted the lack of interoperability between heterogeneous systems as the crux impediment to adopting GIS in the built environment.

The research provides a deep insight into possible areas where GIS is adopted in the construction industry, identifying areas of extensive and limited application coverage over a decade. Besides, it demystifies possible pathways for future integration opportunities of GIS with other emerging technologies within the construction industry.

Multinational business deliver value via multiple sites with similar operational capacities. The age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) delivers significant opportunities for the deployment of digital tools for business optimization. Therefore, this study aims to study the Industry 4.0 implementation for multinationals.

The key objective of this research is multi-site systems integration using a reproducible, modular and standardized “Cyber Physical System (CPS) as-a-Service”.

A best practice reference architecture is adopted to guide the design and delivery of a pioneering CPS multi-site deployment. The CPS deployed is a cloud-based platform adopted to enable all manufacturing areas within a multinational energy and petrochemical company. A methodology is developed to quantify the system environmental and sustainability benefits focusing on reduced carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and energy consumption. These results demonstrate the benefits of standardization, replication and digital enablement for multinational businesses.

The research illustrates the ability to design a single system, reproducible for multiple sites. This research also illustrates the beneficial impact of system reuse due to reduced environmental impact from lower CO₂ emissions and energy consumption. The paper assists organizations in deploying complex systems while addressing multinational systems implementation constraints and standardization.

Lean Six Sigma 4.0 has brought about a paradigm shift in customization, automation, value creation and digitalization to achieve excellence in human factors, operations and sustainable development. Despite its potential, LSS 4.0 is still in its nascent stage, with researchers striving to identify the key and relevant components of LSS in relation to Industry 4.0. The present study aims to address this knowledge gap through a literature review and subsequently provide a conceptual framework for LSS within the context of digital transformation.

In this study, the authors have conducted a thorough review of reputable articles published between 2011 and 2022, focusing on the integration of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0). By using appropriate keywords, the authors identified around 85 relevant articles. The main objective of this integrative literature review was to analyze and extract valuable knowledge from the existing literature on LSS and I4.0. Based on the authors’ findings, a conceptual framework was developed.

The review revealed the motivators, building blocks, tools and challenges of LSS 4.0. The conceptual framework delves into the key aspects of LSS 4.0, focusing on the dimensions of people, process and technology, as well as their subdimensions. These subdimensions serve as the building blocks for developing LSS 4.0 capabilities. The proposed framework visually represents the conceptualization and the relationships among its components.

Only a few conceptual approaches to LSS are developed that include the concepts, new roles and elements of I4.0. As a result, this research investigates the gap in current LSS models preceding I4.0 and develops a conceptual framework to provide a novel and comprehensive summary of the new concepts and components driving nascent and current LSS practices in the digital era.

This study offers practical guidance for implementing LSS in the context of I4.0, emphasizing digital transformation. The findings highlight motivators, building blocks, tools, challenges and spread of LSS 4.0 practices, and present a conceptual framework of LSS 4.0. These insights can help organizations enhance their LSS capabilities and achieve excellence in human factors, operations and sustainable development.

This study aims to make a significant contribution to the model-building efforts of researchers focusing on LSS 4.0. By offering practical guidance, the points discussed in this study help enhance the implementation efforts of practitioners and organizations in the context of I4.0, with a specific focus on digital transformation. The guidance provided takes into account the perspectives of people, processes and technology, providing valuable insights for successful integration.