Abstract
Poor management practices of road transport assets posed a challenge to the sustainable development of the transport system in developing countries like Nigeria. Studies in the past focused mainly on the performance of road construction process. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of the fourth Industrial Revolution (4.0IR) on the road transport assets in developing countries such as Nigeria. The current study aimed at assessing the effect of the 4.0IR towards improving the management practice of road transport assets. Survey instruments were administered to project and facility managers in the Nigerian road construction sector of the economy using a proportionate random sampling technique. Partial least square structural equation modelling was used for data analysis utilising the Warp 7.0 partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) software algorithm. The software calculates p-values with WarpPLS based on non-parametric algorithms, resampling or stable algorithms and thus does not require that the variables to be normally distributed. The study concluded that the 4.0IR drivers have a moderate effect change on the management practice of road transport assets in Nigeria at the moment. The findings imply that management of road assets in Nigeria would moderately improve due to the 4.0IR technologies resulting in transport, safety and general efficiency and effectiveness of road networks in Nigeria. The study identified the 4.0IR drivers to include robotics, mobility, virtual and augmented reality, Internet of things and cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain, three-dimensional (3D) printing drones that are built with an attached 3D printer (the drone hangs a 3D printing nozzle that has fed plastic, concrete mix or other material from a tube connected to the top of the drone's printing path that precisely plotted by software, for a promised printing accuracy of 0.1 mm) and digital engineering. This study emanated from the government reports and past studies in the area of road transport asset management practice which the study investigated the major causes of poor practices and assessed the effect of the 4.0IR on the practice.
Highlights
Road transportation infrastructure assets are expensive to construct and costly to manage, to satisfactorily meet public anticipation
The study aimed at assessing the effect of 4.0IRs on the road transport asset management practice in Nigeria with the view of improving road transport asset management practice in the country
The results identified areas of digitalisation for improvement of road transport asset management practice such as robotics, mobility, virtual and augmented reality, Internet of things and cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain and 3D printing drones, and the digital engineering
Summary
Road transportation infrastructure assets are expensive to construct and costly to manage, to satisfactorily meet public anticipation. An industrial revolution provides reasonable ways of managing existing assets in a way that provides maximum. This study reviewed the road transport asset management system from the perspective of the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution was built upon the previous industrial revolutions and uses digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century which is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is clouding the lines between the physical and digital spheres, this enables industrial organisations to rapidly automate and digitalise traditional business processes of road transport management; this enables the creation and maintenance of more intelligent products and services and transforms the global economy (Caruso, 2018). The industrial revolution was built upon the previous industrial revolutions and uses digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century which is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is clouding the lines between the physical and digital spheres, this enables industrial organisations to rapidly automate and digitalise traditional business processes of road transport management; this enables the creation and maintenance of more intelligent products and services and transforms the global economy (Caruso, 2018). 4.0IR drivers like the Internet of things technologies are at the core of the 4.0IR transition, enabling the connected solutions that make the 4.0IR possible and reap the full benefit, road transport organisations deployed single-point Internet of things solutions and take a comprehensive, strategic approach to reap the benefits of managing road facilities through the 4.0IR (Park, 2016)
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