Multi-dimensional business process optimisation for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission management

Abstract

Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission from activities conducted within business organisations is a major contributor to climate change. A business process is a set of tasks and activities. At business process level, business objectives such as cost of production and time to market are managed and optimised by organisational middle level managers. At present, GHG emission related information is not available to facilitate decision making at process level to achieve GHG related objectives. For organisations to remain sustainable and decision making to be effective, managers need a holistic approach to manage and optimise GHG emissions together with other business objectives. Therefore, this research addresses the overarching knowledge gap in business process level GHG emission modelling, calculation, reporting, and optimising. The purpose of this thesis is to undertake a qualitative and quantitative examination of managing GHG emissions to achieve multi-dimensional business process optimisation while considering other process level objectives like cost and time, to support and empower organisational middle level managers in decision making. In the pursuit of finding a solution to this problem the researcher has created an artefact, "Green Multi-Objective Process Optimisation (Green MOPO) Framework". This framework extends the boundaries of human and organisational capabilities to solve the real world research problem. The framework consists of four major stages, each sub-divided into steps. Each step provided guidance to compute relevant parameters to assist in achieving GHG emission related objectives alongside other process level objectives. The researcher investigated theories relating to each step and discovered gaps in knowledge that has to be addressed to complete each stage. By addressing these gaps six constituent artefacts were produced. o Current emission measuring tools and guidelines are not aimed at measuring emissions of organisational processes. Constituent Artefact-I assists to identify a business process and its different abstraction levels as activity, sub-process, process, and to apportion shared or overhead emissions, e.g. lighting and heating. o Constituent Artefact-II is a tool and a methodology named Green Activity Based Management (ABM) that allows GHG, time, cost modelling and further analysis, calculation, and reporting at different process levels. o Constituent Artefact-III is a set of formulas that allows GHG emissions to be calculated and consolidated at different business process abstraction levels identified by the first artefact. o Current reporting tools only offer top-down organisational level reporting summaries and are not adequately detailed for middle management to manage GHG emissions. Constituent Artefact-IV is an international standards based reporting tool that allows bottom-up reporting of GHG emissions, to provide a bird's eye view of emissions and their sources. o Currently, there is no proper methodology to perform optimisation simultaneously for several dimensions including GHGs. To introduce such optimisation, possible process level changes need to be captured. The study first develops a taxonomy of business process element changes which then helps to derive a multi-objective mathematical model/formula that captures these changes. Constituent Artefact-V proposes selection criteria for an optimisation technique that can optimise the derived formula. The artefact compares and contrasts a set of multi-objective optimisation techniques to select one that best suits the application context. o Constituent Artefact-VI solves the multi-objective formula by applying the optimisation technique against the derived formula. This optimisation resulted in a set of optimal solutions. Using computer based simulation, the artefact relates the optimal solutions back to the business domain, and specifies what the optimisation parameters and their values are in a manner that is clearer and concise to business managers. This research employs the Design Science Research paradigm. In design science research, knowledge and understanding of the design problem and its solution is gained while building an artefact and during the application of that artefact. The research evaluates the main artefact, Green MOPO Framework against real-life business processes in the Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) package manufacturing sector. This type of manufacturing processes consumes a large quantity of energy and hence greatly contributes to GHG emissions. The thesis showcases that the main artefact is useful for the specific purpose it was built for and relates the performance to the intended use of the artefact. The thesis clearly pin points the contributions to the knowledgebase and to practice from the main artefact and its constituent artefacts. It shows how these artefacts add extensions to existing theories and provide new and innovative solutions. The study identified and demonstrated the implications of understanding GHG emission management at a business process level, which paves the way to continuous business process improvement and achievement of multi-dimensional business process optimisation and organisational sustainability. The threat from climate change is serious, growing and urgent. Hence, any contributions from this research will help the present generation to better respond to this major global challenge that shows no boundaries. Further, alongside contributions to research and practice, the limitations of this study opens up many important future research avenues.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English