Critical infrastructure organisation management: an analysis of the transition to the Industry 4.0 era

Critical infrastructure systems (CISs) provide the services that are vital for the economic prosperity, security, and well-being of society. These include power transmission and distribution, telecommunications, transport, and water distribution networks, to name a few. CISs are comprised of both physical and digital assets that provide infrastructure services but require interaction with people to operate. Through sociotechnical systems theory, we can model CISs through the interactions between social and technical factors that influence organisational performance, which is directly linked to the quality of the infrastructure services provided. The task of managing CISs involves not only the effective monitoring of physical assets, system interdependencies, and emerging risks and trends, but also the management of organisational aspects including people, processes, and working cultures. The interaction of these aspects during CIS operations is formalised within the field of organisational theory. Developed society is currently experiencing a technological revolution, often termed as Industry 4.0, whereby the operational and management capabilities of CISs and organisations are being transformed through the use of bespoke technologies and system analytics. These technological advancements are allowing organisations to gain new insights into how they can operate, maintain, and protect their systems and assets more effectively. The idealised Industry 4.0 model envisions that all data capture, storage, and analysis processes will be fully automated to enable automated decision-making with minimal human intervention. However, advancements of this type will change how critical infrastructure (CI) organisations are structured and managed. At present, organisational theory lacks the ability to capture and provide governance on the evolving relationships between technologies, people, and processes in CIS management. This research addresses this shortcoming by critically analysing data management structures and practices in CI organisations and developing an analytical framework that captures the interdependencies between technical and social elements in complex systems. It introduces the Data and Information Flow (DIF) model, which provides a framework that surpasses the capability of existing methods by capturing the movement and interactions between data, information, management systems, people, and processes in organisations. The research approach and subsequent development of the DIF model design involved a combination of reviewing existing organisational theory methods and engaging with five case study organisations from the energy sector to investigate and comparatively assess their organisational resource and data management strategies. The research also sought to understand the extent to which the case study organisations have adopted Industry 4.0 advancements in practice. Qualitative data collection methods including interviews, group workshops and webinars, and document analysis were applied. The research findings provide unique insight into how organisations structure both technical - i.e., data, information, and management systems - and social - i.e., personnel and processes - entities. The DIF model visually captures and characterizes the organisational practices, resources, and inherent relationships that influence and determine management decisions. The case study assessments show clear evidence of the existence of and potential for further automation in data capture and analysis processes to support system management and decision-making in CI organisations. However, they highlight inefficiencies in system operations due to the vast amount of human input and influence required in management processes, data quality challenges, and insufficient technical capability in existing management systems and software. These inefficiencies, in addition to social and cultural disruptions caused by technological changes, are limiting the extent of the digital transition and realisation of the Industry 4.0 ideal in CI organisations. This can only be achieved if an organisation's structure and the interactions between all available resources can be assessed and optimised in a combined manner. The DIF model offers the ability to map these wider interactions.