IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i12p4693-d189336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Smart Systems Implementation in UK Food Manufacturing Companies: A Sustainability Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Thomas

    (Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK)

  • Claire Haven-Tang

    (Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK)

  • Richard Barton

    (Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK)

  • Rachel Mason-Jones

    (Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK)

  • Mark Francis

    (Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK)

  • Paul Byard

    (Engineering Employers Federation, Wales CF31 3WT, UK)

Abstract

The UK food industry faces significant challenges to remain sustainable. With major challenges, such as Brexit, on the horizon, companies can no longer rely on a low labour cost workforce to maintain low production costs and achieve economic sustainability. Smart Systems (SS) is being seen as an approach towards achieving significant improvements in both economic and environmental sustainability. However, there is little evidence to indicate whether UK food companies are prepared for the implementation of such systems. The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of Smart Systems in UK food manufacturing companies, and to identify the key priority areas and improvement levers for the implementation of such systems. A triangulated primary research approach is adopted that includes a questionnaire, follow-up interviews, and visits to 32 food manufacturing companies in the UK. The questionnaire and interviews are guided by a unique measuring instrument that the authors developed that focusses upon SS technologies and systems. This paper makes an original contribution in that it is one of the few academic studies to explore the implementation of SS in the industry, and provides a new perspective on the key drivers and inhibitors of its implementation. The findings suggest that the current turbulence in the industry could be bringing food companies closer to the adoption of such systems; hence, it is a good time to define and develop the optimum SS implementation strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Thomas & Claire Haven-Tang & Richard Barton & Rachel Mason-Jones & Mark Francis & Paul Byard, 2018. "Smart Systems Implementation in UK Food Manufacturing Companies: A Sustainability Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4693-:d:189336
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4693/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4693/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sameer Kumar & Dawn Heustis & Jacqueline M Graham, 2015. "The future of traceability within the U.S. food industry supply chain: a business case," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 64(1), pages 129-146, January.
    2. Judit Nagy & Judit Oláh & Edina Erdei & Domicián Máté & József Popp, 2018. "The Role and Impact of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things on the Business Strategy of the Value Chain—The Case of Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-25, September.
    3. Korosh Emamisaleh & Kamaleddin Rahmani, 2017. "Sustainable supply chain in food industries: Drivers and strategic sustainability orientation," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1345296-134, January.
    4. Shirish Jeble & Rameshwar Dubey & Stephen J. Childe & Thanos Papadopoulos & David Roubaud & Anand Prakash, 2018. "Impact of big data and predictive analytics capability on supply chain sustainability," Post-Print hal-02061341, HAL.
    5. Julian Marius Müller & Daniel Kiel & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2018. "What Drives the Implementation of Industry 4.0? The Role of Opportunities and Challenges in the Context of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abbate, Stefano & Centobelli, Piera & Cerchione, Roberto, 2023. "The digital and sustainable transition of the agri-food sector," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    2. Ricardo Chalmeta & Nestor J. Santos-deLeón, 2020. "Sustainable Supply Chain in the Era of Industry 4.0 and Big Data: A Systematic Analysis of Literature and Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-24, May.
    3. Krongthong Heebkhoksung, 2024. "A New Paradigm for Sustainable Supply Chain Management for Business Operation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-16, July.
    4. Jaroslav Vrchota & Martin Pech & Ladislav Rolínek & Jiří Bednář, 2020. "Sustainability Outcomes of Green Processes in Relation to Industry 4.0 in Manufacturing: Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-47, July.
    5. Xiaoxia Chen & Mélanie Despeisse & Björn Johansson, 2020. "Environmental Sustainability of Digitalization in Manufacturing: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-31, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Piccarozzi, Michela & Silvestri, Cecilia & Aquilani, Barbara & Silvestri, Luca, 2022. "Is this a new story of the ‘Two Giants’? A systematic literature review of the relationship between industry 4.0, sustainability and its pillars," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    2. Christian Hoyer & Indra Gunawan & Carmen Haule Reaiche, 2020. "The Implementation of Industry 4.0 – A Systematic Literature Review of the Key Factors," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 557-578, July.
    3. Muhammad Zafar Yaqub & Abdullah Alsabban, 2023. "Industry-4.0-Enabled Digital Transformation: Prospects, Instruments, Challenges, and Implications for Business Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-33, May.
    4. Paweł Kłobukowski & Jacek Pasieczny, 2020. "Impact of Resources on the Development of Local Entrepreneurship in Industry 4.0," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-25, December.
    5. Mariani, Marcello & Borghi, Matteo, 2019. "Industry 4.0: A bibliometric review of its managerial intellectual structure and potential evolution in the service industries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    6. Leonardo de Assis Santos & Leonardo Marques, 2022. "Big data analytics for supply chain risk management: research opportunities at process crossroads," Post-Print hal-03766121, HAL.
    7. Maria Polorecka & Jozef Kubas & Pavel Danihelka & Katarina Petrlova & Katarina Repkova Stofkova & Katarina Buganova, 2021. "Use of Software on Modeling Hazardous Substance Release as a Support Tool for Crisis Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, January.
    8. Wunhong Su & Liuzhen Zhang & Chao Ge & Shuai Chen, 2022. "Association between Internal Control and Sustainability: A Literature Review Based on the SOX Act Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-30, August.
    9. Andrei Alexandru Panait & Denisa Tatiana Leonte & Ionut Gabriel Tulearca, 2023. "Digital Analytics as a Major Component in Building a Robust Academic Brand," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 400-414.
    10. Srivastava, Deepak Kumar & Kumar, Vikas & Ekren, Banu Yetkin & Upadhyay, Arvind & Tyagi, Mrinal & Kumari, Archana, 2022. "Adopting Industry 4.0 by leveraging organisational factors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    11. Andrea Katona & Zoltán Birkner & Erzsébet Péter, 2023. "Examining Digital Transformation Trends in Austrian and Hungarian Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-22, August.
    12. Menti, Federica & Romero, David & Jacobsen, Peter, 2023. "A technology assessment and implementation model for evaluating socio-cultural and technical factors for the successful deployment of Logistics 4.0 technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    13. Elias G. Carayannis & David F. J. Campbell, 2021. "Democracy of Climate and Climate for Democracy: the Evolution of Quadruple and Quintuple Helix Innovation Systems," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(4), pages 2050-2082, December.
    14. Nuchjarin Intalar & Yasushi Ueki & Chawalit Jeenanunta, 2024. "Enhancing Competitiveness: Driving and Facilitating Factors for Industry 4.0 Adoption in Thai Manufacturing," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-23, August.
    15. Fredrick Betuel Sawe & Anil Kumar & Jose Arturo Garza‐Reyes & Rohit Agrawal, 2021. "Assessing people‐driven factors for circular economy practices in small and medium‐sized enterprise supply chains: Business strategies and environmental perspectives," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 2951-2965, November.
    16. Taiwen Feng & Hongyan Sheng, 2023. "Identifying the equifinal configurations of prompting green supply chain integration and subsequent performance outcome," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5234-5251, December.
    17. Artur Pollak & Agata Hilarowicz & Maciej Walczak & Damian Gąsiorek, 2020. "A Framework of Action for Implementation of Industry 4.0. an Empirically Based Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-16, July.
    18. Olumide Emmanuel Oluyisola & Fabio Sgarbossa & Jan Ola Strandhagen, 2020. "Smart Production Planning and Control: Concept, Use-Cases and Sustainability Implications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-29, May.
    19. Harkaran Kava & Konstantina Spanaki & Thanos Papadopoulos & Stella Despoudi & Oscar Rodriguez-Espindola & Masoud Fakhimi, 2021. "Data Analytics Diffusion in the UK Renewable Energy Sector: An Innovation Perspective," Post-Print hal-03781046, HAL.
    20. Khalid Rasheed Memon & Say Keat Ooi & Heesup Han, 2024. "Responsible innovation and corporate sustainability performance: A structural equation modeling‐neural network approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 2712-2730, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4693-:d:189336. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.