Managing global network operations along the engineering value chain

Purpose: This paper aims to improve understanding of how to manage global network operations from an engineering perspective. Design/methodology/approach: This research adopted a theory building approach based on case studies. Grounded in the existing literature, the theoretical framework was refined and enriched through nine in-depth case studies in the industry sectors of aerospace, automotives, defence and electrics and electronics. Findings: This paper demonstrates the main value creation mechanisms of global network operations along the engineering value chain. Typical organisational features to support the value creation mechanisms are captured, and the key issues in engineering network design and operations are presented with an overall framework. Practical implications: Evidenced by a series of pilot applications, outputs of this research can help companies to improve the performance of their current engineering networks and design new engineering networks to better support their global businesses and customers in a systematic way. Originality/value: Issues about the design and operations of global engineering networks (GEN) are poorly understood in the existing literature in contrast to their apparent importance in value creation and realisation. To address this knowledge gap, this paper introduces the concept of engineering value chain to highlight the potential of a value chain approach to the exploration of engineering activities in a complex business context. At the same time, it develops an overall framework for managing GEN along the engineering value chain. This improves our understanding of engineering in industrial value chains and extends the theoretical understanding of GEN through integrating the engineering network theories and the value chain concepts. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Managing Information Risks in asset management - Experiences from an in-depth case study in the utility industry

Information is one of the most important resources in our globalized economy. The value of information often exceeds the value of physical assets. Information quality has, in many ways, an impact on asset management organisations and asset managers struggle to understand and to quantify it, which is a prerequisite for effective information quality improvement. Over the past few years, we have developed an innovative management concept that addresses these new asset management challenges: a process for Total Information Risk Management (TIRM), which has been already tested in a number of asset management industries. The TIRM process enables to manage information quality more effectively in asset management organisations as it focuses specifically on the risks that are imposed by information quality. In this paper, we show how we have applied the TIRM process in an in-depth study at a medium-sized European utility provider, the Manx Electricity Authority (MEA), at the Isle of Man.

Managing water resources and their connection to land and energy

Effective management is a key to ensuring the current and future sustainability of land, water and energy resources. Identifying the complexities of such management is not an easy task, especially since past studies have focussed on studying these resources in isolation from one another. However, with rapid population growth and an increase in the awareness of a potential change in climatic conditions that may affect the demand for and supply of food, water and energy, there has been a growing need to integrate the planning decisions relating to these three resources. The paper shows the visualisation of linked resources by drawing a set of interconnected Sankey diagrams for energy, water and land. These track the changes from basic resource (e.g. coal, surface water, groundwater and cropland) through transformations (e.g. fuel refining and desalination) to final services (e.g. sustenance, hygiene and transportation). The focus here is on the water analysis aspects of the tool, which uses California as a detailed case study. The movement of water in California is traced from its source to its services by mapping the different transformations of water from when it becomes available, through its use, to further treatment, to final sinks (including recycling and reuse of that resource). The connections that water has with energy and land resources for the state of California are highlighted. This includes the amount of energy used to pump and treat water, and the amount of water used for energy production and the land resources which create a water demand to produce crops for food. By mapping water in this way, policy-makers and resource managers can more easily understand the competing uses of water (environment, agriculture and urban use) through the identification of the services it delivers (e.g. sanitation, agriculture, landscaping), the potential opportunities for improving the management of the resource (e.g. building new desalination plants, reducing the demand for services), and the connections with other resources which are often overlooked in a traditional sector-based management strategy.