Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate the possibility of maintaining triple bottom line (TBL) sustainable performance in the petroleum industry via a case study. In particular, it presents the utilization of a lean-six-sigma (LSS) concept for investigating one of the underperforming support service activities in an engineering contractor (EC) and to indicate how LSS concepts enable the barriers to maintaining sustainable petroleum operations to be reduced for maintaining sustainable petroleum operations. Design/methodology/approach: A case study has been carried out in an EC organization in relation to one of the support services (i.e. valves requisition process [VRP]) to demonstrate how LSS concepts enable the barriers to maintaining sustainable petroleum operations to be reduced for maintaining sustainable petroleum operations. Value stream mapping (VSM) and value stream analysis (VSA) have been utilized to investigate the barriers that inhibit sustainable operations. VSM and VSA have been performed to investigate the underperforming activities in the selected support service (i.e. VRP) using a current state map. After performing VSA, a future state map has been developed, indicating possible improvements in overall TBL sustainable performance. Findings: VSM and VSA enable the barriers to maintaining TBL sustainable operations in the petroleum industry to be investigated, while minimizing waste in the ECs and asset owners’ organizations. Research limitations/implications: The study has been limited to ECs’ support services, which have been delivered based on asset operators’ requirements. Practical implications: The suggested LSS approach and related analysis help practicing engineers to perform similar analysis for different engineering support services. Improved performance in support service results minimize health, safety and environmental challenges in asset operations, and the resulting waste reduction increases the return on investments. Social implications: Effective delivery of the assessments minimizes potential delays in projects related to petroleum operations, mitigating future accidents. It enhances the TBL sustainable performance of an asset-intensive industrial organization. Originality/value: This manuscript addresses the inherent TBL sustainable performance challenges in the petroleum industry that have been caused by delayed projects. The responsibilities of projects’ delivery are mainly attributed to ECs. The EC organizations are operating in project mode, and projects delays are inherently caused by the frequently changing nature of: operators’ requirements; suppliers’ and/or manufacturers’ capabilities and restrictions; and lack of standardization in documentation and work processes (i.e. because of different engineering projects’ demands). Hence, this manuscript illustrates a methodology to demonstrate the possibility of TBL sustainable performance improvement in the petroleum industry via a case study (i.e. VRP-related project delivery performance improvement) in an EC organization utilizing the lean concept.

The management of the integrity of engineering assets such as production plants, facilities and equipment can be a challenging task due to their interrelationships with financial, information, human and intangible assets. In order to ensure effective utilisation and to improve the management of such assets, one has to make balanced and effective decisions based on performance assessments. The main challenge for asset integrity management (AIM) is related to various aspects of its human dimension as apparent on organisational settings and associated cognitive dispensations. In this article, AIM is cascaded down to design, operational and technical integrity management. Furthermore, the performance of physical assets (PA) is discussed in terms of financial, societal and environmental dimensions that deliver sustainability value to the assets' owner. The management of such a sustainable value is vital in managing the overall asset integrity in order to minimise rising stakeholder pressure and achieve balanced performance. The paper provides a review of AIM and a foundation for engineers and managers to analyse the general problem of managing PA' integrity to increase the sustainable value of an asset intensive business in a more holistic way.

Asset-intensive organisations are under rising pressure from their stakeholders to realise the optimum level of exploiting assets to achieve a balanced and sustainable performance (SP) over their life cycle. However, industrial organisational structures delineated along traditional disciplines fail to provide an asset-centric focus. Accomplishing SP in an asset-intensive organisation depends on the ability of the human authority in an organisational hierarchy to maintain different asset operations align with sustainable considerations. The level of physical assets' integrity in a particular industrial setting depends on the personnel ability for acquisition, exploitation (includes design and operation), maintenance, modification and disposal of critical assets and properties within the limits of universally accepted norms. Thus, human factor (HF) is a central measure to evaluate the ‘integrity’ of physical assets in asset management as the ‘integrity’ is a characteristic that human beings can have. The publically available specification (PAS) which is published by British Standards Institution (BSI) provides specification (PAS-1) and guidelines (PAS-2) for managing integrity of physical assets towards SP. This manuscript demonstrates the role of PAS 5-1&2 and HFs achieving SP. It also proposes a framework and its implementation methodology to mitigate unwanted events due to human errors leading to organisational weaknesses.

Purpose: A systematic literature review is performed to reveal the state-of-the-art in the implementation of lean principles in the petroleum industry. This paper aims to generate a conceptual framework and reveal research gaps with respect to lean concept application in the petroleum industry.Design/methodology/approach: After formulating research questions, the search strategy is generated, followed by data extraction, literature review and synthesis of the results. The search covers any studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings in the period 1990-2017 that discuss the implementation of the lean concept in the petroleum industry.Findings: The lean concept has been used to improve operational and technical aspects, contractor/supplier relationships, team organization and project management practice in the petroleum industry. Based on the literature review, a conceptual framework is generated comprising four main elements: leadership and commitment from management, employee involvement, cooperation and trust with contractors/suppliers and lean project management. These elements are the pillars that are founded on lean philosophy and principles to support technical/operational improvement in the organization. The types of literature identified indicate that the subject of the study is still immature.Research limitations/implications: This study focuses only on the upstream sector of the petroleum industry, which restricts the generalizability of the results to midstream and downstream businesses.Practical implications: This paper provides knowledge and information regarding the current state of lean implementation in the petroleum industry. The developed conceptual framework provides general guidance for practitioners regarding lean implementation in the petroleum industry, and is also expected to support research on theory building.Originality/value: Few studies have discussed the application of the lean concept in the petroleum industry. This paper contributes a platform for researchers and practitioners to comprehend how the lean concept has been applied in the petroleum industry, and provides a foundation for further studies on lean implementation in the petroleum industry.