IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i20p13307-d944043.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Applying the Theory of Constraints to Explore the UK Renewable-Energy Supply Chain

Author

Listed:
  • Rachel Mason-Jones

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

  • Paul G. Davies

    (Swansea School of Management, Swansea University, Swansea SA1 8EN, UK)

  • Andrew Thomas

    (Aberystwyth Business School, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 3DL, UK)

Abstract

As a result of the emerging energy crisis and the requirement for countries to utilize more energy derived from renewable sources, demand for renewable energy technologies is likely to rise. Therefore, it is critical that production of such technologies is ramped up in order to meet this demand. However, evidence suggests that engineering and manufacturing companies in the UK are not entering the renewables market at the desired rate and, hence, renewable supply chains currently lack the ability to respond to increased demand due to the lack of businesses willing to move into supplying the renewables sector. Through a three phased research approach, this paper will identify the barriers and risks that are suggested as reasons why companies do not invest and operate within the renewables sector. Through further analysis obtained from the survey work and focus groups, the paper goes on to identify and categorize these barriers and risks in the form of ‘system constraints’ which are then used to construct a current reality tree (CRT) that connects the constraints into a comprehensive characterization map of the sector which suggests why companies fail to enter the renewables supply chain market. The CRT identifies the complex arrangement of issues which act as risks and barriers. These issues include; poor supply chain readiness leading to a company’s inability to respond quickly and correctly to opportunities, a lack of suitable policies and government investment in the renewables infrastructure (which leads to a lack of opportunities for supply-chain companies) and a lack of knowledge of the sector by companies, meaning that supply-chain companies are resistant to investing in the sector for fear of poor return on investment. This work provides key insights into the UK manufacturing supply chain and its attitudes to entering the renewables sector. Furthermore, the paper also applies and evaluates the use of the CRT technique and ascertains its suitability to effectively characterize sector issues and its current problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Rachel Mason-Jones & Paul G. Davies & Andrew Thomas, 2022. "Applying the Theory of Constraints to Explore the UK Renewable-Energy Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13307-:d:944043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13307/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13307/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. United Nations UN, 2015. "The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015," Working Papers id:7097, eSocialSciences.
    2. United Nations UN, 2015. "The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015," Working Papers id:7222, eSocialSciences.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Caroline Jennings Saul & Heiko Gebauer, 2018. "Digital Transformation as an Enabler for Advanced Services in the Sanitation Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Bruno F. Sunguya & Yue Ge & Linda B. Mlunde & Rose Mpembeni & Germana H. Leyna & Krishna C. Poudel & Niyati Parekh & Jiayan Huang, 2022. "Targeted and Population-Wide Interventions Are Needed to Address the Persistent Burden of Anemia among Women of Reproductive Age in Tanzania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-12, July.
    3. Valensisi, Giovanni & Gauci, Adrian, 2013. "Graduated without passing? The employment dimension and LDCs' prospects under the Istanbul Programme of Action," MPRA Paper 86966, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Lisa F. Clark, 2018. "Policy conflicts in global food assistance strategies: balancing local procurement and harmonization," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(1), pages 211-222, February.
    5. Jussi T. S. Heikkila, 2020. "Classifying economics for the common good: Connecting sustainable development goals to JEL codes," Papers 2004.04384, arXiv.org.
    6. Menon Martina & Perali Federico & Veronesi Marcella, 2017. "“Leaving No Child Behind:” Preferences for Social Inclusion and Altruism," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(3), pages 1-19, July.
    7. Shannon L. Sibbald & Nicole Haggerty, 2019. "Integrating Business and Medical Pedagogy to Accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals," Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, , vol. 13(1), pages 92-101, March.
    8. Santangelo, Grazia D., 2018. "The impact of FDI in land in agriculture in developing countries on host country food security," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 75-84.
    9. José Antonio Rodriguez Martin & Juan Dios Jiménez Aguilera & José María Martín Martín & José Antonio Salinas Fernández, 2018. "Crisis in the Horn of Africa: Measurement of Progress Towards Millennium Development Goals," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 499-514, January.
    10. Donatella Saccone, 2021. "Can the Covid19 pandemic affect the achievement of the ‘Zero Hunger’ goal? Some preliminary reflections," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(7), pages 1025-1038, September.
    11. Cintron, Chris & Seff, Ilana & Baird, Sarah, 2017. "Dynamics of Wasting and Underweight in Ethiopian Children," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 25(2), May.
    12. Victoria Menil, 2015. "Missed Opportunities in Global Health: Identifying New Strategies to Improve Mental Health in LMICs," Working Papers id:7987, eSocialSciences.
    13. Tesfalidet Tekelab & Catherine Chojenta & Roger Smith & Deborah Loxton, 2019. "Factors affecting utilization of antenatal care in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-24, April.
    14. Renato Vargas & Pamela Escobar & Maynor Cabrera & Javier Cabrera & Violeta Hernández & Vivian Guzmán & Martin Cicowiez, 2017. "Climate risk and food security in Guatemala," Working Papers MPIA 2017-01, PEP-MPIA.
    15. Simplice A. Asongu & Joseph Amankwah‐Amoah & Rexon T. Nting & Godfred Adjapong Afrifa, 2021. "Information Technology and Gender Economic Inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 120-133, April.
    16. Charles M. A. Clark, 2021. "Development Policy and the Poor, Part 2: Preferential Option for the Poor," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(4), pages 1131-1154, September.
    17. Ocaña-Riola, Ricardo & Martín-Olmedo, Piedad & Maroto-Navarro, Gracia & García-Calvente, María Del Mar & Mayoral-Cortés, José María & Ruiz-Fernández, Josefa & Sánchez-Cruz, José Juan, 2017. "Impact of the Great Recession in the Social Welfare Indicators Related to the Labour Market in Andalusia /Impacto de la Gran Recesión en los indicadores de bienestar social relacionados con el mercado," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 35, pages 245-262, Enero.
    18. Eoghan Brady & Kenneth Hill, 2017. "Testing survey-based methods for rapid monitoring of child mortality, with implications for summary birth history data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-10, April.
    19. Marie E. Lowe & Suzanne Sharp, 2021. "Gendering human capital development in Western Alaska," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 46-60, January.
    20. Kwakwa, Paul Adjei, 2019. "Ghana’s economic growth and welfare issues," MPRA Paper 96019, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13307-:d:944043. 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.