Modelling reverse logistics practices: a case study of ...

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Latin American J. Management for Sustainable Development, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2014

Modelling reverse logistics practices: a case study of recycled tyres in Colombia Carolina Pirachicán-Mayorga, Jairo R. Montoya-Torres*, Jairo Jarrín and Ana Ximena Halabi Echeverry Escuela Internacional de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad de La Sabana, km 7 autopista norte de Bogotá, Chía (Cundinamarca), Colombia E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author Abstract: The increase concern on sustainability has implied a number of changes for companies. Management in supply chains has turned to a new paradigm to include sustainability so that organisations and business processes across and within them are now seeking for the achievement of social, environmental and economic objectives shared by organisation and the entire supply chain. In order to ensure that current logistics practices are sustainable in the long-term, the concept of reverse logistics becomes part of the supply chain management allowing the efficient and effective management of product recycling and reuse. This paper is a contribution on reverse logistics practices as it attempts to assess in what extend Colombian enterprises implement reverse logistics concepts. Conceptual models are presented in this paper as ‘evidence for the field’ and documented through a rigorous exploratory study. Results are discussed and suggestions to decrease a negative impact on the environment are presented. Keywords: reverse logistics; sustainability; recycled tyres; case study; Colombia. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Pirachicán-Mayorga, C., Montoya-Torres, J.R., Jarrín, J. and Halabi Echeverry, A.X. (2014) ‘Modelling reverse logistics practices: a case study of recycled tyres in Colombia’, Latin American J. Management for Sustainable Development, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.58–72. Biographical notes: Carolina Pirachicán-Mayorga obtained her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. She was awarded a Young Research Grant for the Colombian Administrative Department of Science and Technology – Colciencias in 2008. She has been a Lecturer in Reverse Logistics for the undergraduate programme in International Marketing and Logistics Management at Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia. Her research focused on analysing reverse logistics practices in various Colombian industrial sectors.

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Modelling reverse logistics practices

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Jairo R. Montoya-Torres is a Full Professor within the School of Economics and Management Sciences at Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia. He holds a PhD from École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Étienne, France. He has been Guest Editor for Annals of Operations Research, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, International J. of Systems and Industrial Engineering, Journal of Cleaner Production, among others. He co-edited the book Hybrid Algorithms for Service, Computing and Manufacturing Systems (published by IGI Global in 2012), and the Proceedings of the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference. His research interests include applied combinatorial optimisation, modelling and simulation of production and logistics systems, scheduling, and sustainability in logistics and supply chain management. Jairo Jarrín obtained his Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering and is currently working as a Full-time Lecturer at Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia. He has more than 18 years of experience in logistics management, including collaborative issues and RFID systems implementation. He is currently working towards his Master in Pedagogy within the Faculty of Education at Univerdidad de La Sabana, Colombia. His research interests focus on logistics and supply chain management in a general sense. Ana Ximena Halabi Echeverry is an Assistant Professor at Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Hydro-systems both from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. She is currently working towards a PhD within the Department of Computing at Macquarie University, Australia. Her current research focuses on the integration of seaports logistics management. Her research interests include: complex social systems, datadriven and expertise modelling, supply chain management, computational intelligence or in general way, systems based on computer knowledge and intelligence.

1

Introduction

The rise of environmental and sustainable concerns has implied a number of changes for companies from the strategy up to the operational level, affecting their people and impacting their business processes and technology. In this regards, supply chain management (SCM), and in particular sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), gives a good framework to address sustainability issues. Indeed, SSCM involves organisations, business processes across and within these organisations, and the achievement of social, environmental and economic objectives shared by each organisation and the entire supply chain. Indeed, as pointed out by Halabi et al. (2013), in recent years, there has been increasing concern about the environmental effects on the planet of human activity and current logistic practices may not be sustainable in the long-term. In such a context, reverse logistics (RL) is part of the SSCM and comprises a series of activities to treat returned products until they are properly recovered or disposed of (Rogers and Tibben-Lembke, 1999). There are various definitions of RL in the academic literature (e.g., Fleischmann et al., 1997; Dowlatshahi, 2000; Dekker et al., 2004; Blumerg, 2005; Srivastava, 2007). According to the Reverse Logistics Executive Council (RLEC, 2013), RL is defined as “the process of planning, implementing, and

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C. Pirachicán-Mayorga et al.

controlling the efficient and cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods and related information from the point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal”. These activities include collection, cleaning, disassembly, test and sorting, storage, transport, and recovery operations. Regarding recovery operations, we can find a combination of several main recovery options, like reuse, repair, refurbishing, remanufacturing, cannibalisation and recycling (Dekker and Van Der Laan, 1999). It is nowadays believed that RL as a field is “unique enough to undergo specialized research” (Tibben-Lembke and Rogers, 2002). The development of a RL system requires allows the growing of the whole enterprise if we consider that the practice of RL is a strategic issue of the business that highly depends on operational issues of value and non-value-added activities (Halabi et al., 2013). It is to notice also that, in today’s marketplace, effective RL management should be used as a competitive advantage, a positive profit centre, and a tool to cut costs and to improve customer satisfaction (Dekker et al., 2004; Richey et al., 2005; Li and Olorunniwo, 2008; Barker and Zabinsky, 2011). The practice of RL has been accepted as a critical part of a SSCM strategy (Halabi et al., 2013). RL has broad impacts on environment and human health (Rogers and Tibben-Lembke, 1999). Regarding environmental laws and government environmental initiatives, the study of Murphy and Poist (2003) revelled that companies in Canada and Western Europe are more progressive than those in the USA in managing environmental issues in logistics. On the other hand, landfill capacity, even worldwide, has become more limited and expensive, and more restrictions are imposed to protect human health (Rogers and Tibben-Lembke, 1999; Prahinski and Kocabasoglu, 2006). However, some companies abandon end-of-life products with hazardous materials into land directly (Li and Olorunniwo, 2008). For the case of Colombia, as described by Halabi et al. (2013), according to publications by the Colombian Ministry for the Environment (2007), more than 28,800 tons of wastes were generated in the country in 2007, and only around 13% were actually recovered. From this amount, about 7% are commercialised in second markets by informal collectors and 6% are formally returned to production processes. To overcome this gap, we present a research approach on RL practices in companies from Colombia. The work presented in this paper follows the results presented by Halabi et al. (2013). These authors focused only on the plastic sector. Within this context, the objective of this paper is to provide some insights about the development of RL practices in Colombia in continuity with previous works carried out by the same authors (Halabi et al., 2013) in the plastic sector. The current paper focuses on the recycling of scrap tyres and the goal is to assess the environmental impact of recycling and reuse may have in this sector. We aim at identifying what may be considered as a typical or generic RL process flow as well as the key strategic issues that a firm may use for competitive advantage. Similar studies regarding the assessment of RL practices have been presented in the scientific literature (see for example, Mondschein and Schilkrut, 1997; González-Torre and Adenso-Díaz, 2006; Li and Olorunniwo, 2008; Genchev, 2009; Halabi et al., 2013) in different industrial sector: this clearly highlights the relevance of our study. In addition, reusing scrap tyres has become a worldwide challenge, especially due to the great difficulty in finding ecologically and economically feasible ways to dispose of them (Francisco de Almeida Júnior et al., 2012). This has led to the creation of specific programmes and legislation for reusing scrap tyres. Technologies exist to recover their value for energy, as rubber or as asphalt compositions


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(Amari et al., 1999; Francisco de Almeida Júnior et al., 2012; Duarte Ribeiro de Souza and de Almeida D’Agosto, 2013). Our study follows the methodology employed by Li and Olorunniwo (2008) and by Halabi et al. (2013). A set of companies was selected as they highly represent the different actors of the supply chain in Colombia. A statistical analysis was performed of how RL practices in these enterprises impact both operational RL costs and marketplace opportunities. We also intend to identify the barriers for implementing efficient RL strategies. The practices of those companies reported in this case study corroborate the possibility to relate them with the existing literature, as it is presented in the following sections of this paper. The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. After and introduction of the recycled tyres industry in Colombia in Section 2, this paper continues in Section 3 by explaining the methodology employed to perform the analysis and the modelling representation of selected companies for this study. Section 4 presents the findings of the study. This paper ends in Section 5 by presenting some concluding remarks.

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Recycled tyres in Colombia

Colombia has been developing different projects related with the reuse of tyres recovered around the country. These projects also include the characterisation of tyres recycling activities and the analysis of the role of each actor in the supply chain and current use of recovered wastes, and how experiences in other countries could be adapted for the Colombian case. Data from representatives of the industrial sector state that about four millions of tyres are sold in average per year (Pérez Díaz, 2010). Approximately 22% of tyres are produced in Colombia by multinational companies (about 60% of the marketplace), while most of the remaining part is imported from China, Japan and Taiwan. The total offer is finally completed with imports from the USA, Brazil, France and Germany. The part of the market that is demanding the most corresponds to vehicles and vans with more than 2.5 millions of units, followed by trucks with one million of units. The remaining production is devoted to heavy machinery (e.g., tractors). On the other hand, according to official data from the Colombian Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development (2010), 24% of total annual sales of tyres correspond to tyres for the transport sector (buses and micro-buses), while the other 76% corresponds to tyres for cars, taxis and vans. If we consider an average duration of 18 months for each tyre, the total amount of recycled tyres can be estimated in 54 tons per year, in average. Hence, there is a high potential for this industrial sector to generate and to provide raw material for other supply chains. In current practice, used tyres are informally stored in clandestine deposits, roofs in private houses and public areas (e.g., lakes, rivers, streets, parks) with very serious consequences and impacts on the environment and public health. Some few industrial sectors exploit used tyres as fuel for this productive process (e.g., cement and brick factories), but still this is done without any control and hence generating toxic emissions and small particles that again have serious impacts on the environment and in public health. In order to overcome these problems and the misuse of used tyres, the Colombian Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development released the Resolution

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No. 1457 of the 29th of July 2010, in which the configuration of selective collection systems for used tyres and the corresponding procedures for environmental management are defined. This legal document state that the responsible for the use of used tyres after the end of their lifecycle are tyres manufacturers/importers and vehicle assemblers/importers. The collection system must allow consumers to return tyres in accessible collection points without any cost. Targets from the national government are by the end of year 2010, with an annual increase of 5% until reaching the recovery rate of 65% of used tyres. Municipal authorities, together with local secretariats for the environment, should develop strategies for the recovery of used tyres and must support educational programmes addressed to the general community in order to inform them and to ensure that tyres are properly recycled. Finally, the document also prohibits the mishandling of used tyres: open burning, improper disposal, storage in public space or landfills, use as fuel, etc. A sanctioning system is finally defined in case anyone is found violating the legislation. With both the current negative practices regarding the recovery and recycling of tyres at the end of their lifecycle and the release of this regulation seeking a better manipulation of this waste, the country is facing, in the medium term, the challenge of both implementing this regulation and generating economic benefits by reducing at the same time the impacts on the environment and on the general community. In Latin America, there is a general concern about the reuse of scrap tyres as well (Francisco de Almeida Júnior et al., 2012; Duarte Ribeiro de Souza and de Almeida D’Agosto, 2013).

3

Methods

Our study followed the methodology employed by Li and Olorunniwo (2008) and later employed by Halabi et al. (2013). For the case study in the current paper, we formulated 16 hypotheses regarding RL practices and its impacts on firm performance. A survey was delivered to a total of 25 enterprises belonging to different echelons of the supply chain of tyres in Colombia. The rationale behind this selection was that enterprises must represent the dynamics of this industry. Enterprises were then grouped according to their principal activities in the following subsets: manufacturers, importers, distributors, assemblers, fleet, and remanufacturers. On-site visits during the first semester of 2010 allowed us to gain more insights about issues related to information on general practice of RL including the company’s competitive strategies, recovery process flows, alternatives for the use of recycled tyres, and the factors that affect these alternatives. These interviews and the information obtained allowed us to model the whole RL process for each company. On-site interviews were also useful to assess the objectives, barriers and market opportunities engaged in by the companies. In order to model the RL process of each company and to establish a general framework for the industrial sector, we followed the conceptual framework for RL of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) for non-hazardous waste reduction activities (Halabi et al., 2013). Our case study can be supported by this theoretical framework since the model allows the understanding of the sequence of RL adopted by the companies: collection, selection, re-processing (reuse, remanufacturing and recycling), disposal and redistribution.


4

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Findings

4.1 Modelling the reverse supply chains The scientific literature has already witnessed the complexity of RL processes in real practice. The process has to be robust and customer-focused in order to fully satisfy the customers with the expected return outcome (Li and Olorunniwo, 2008). Hence, it is relevant for our study to firstly address our findings regarding the RL process of each family of actors under study in order to figure a global (integrated) conceptual flow for the reverse supply chain, according to the modelling framework explained in previous sections. The particular models for each set of firms are presented in Figures 1 to 6: •

Manufacturers: These agents are in charge of the direct logistics flows in which raw materials are transformed in the final finished product. Some waste is generated during the production process and some non-conformities can be recovered during product inspections. Also, some commercial returns are obtained. These reserve logistics activities are mapped in Figure 1.

•

Importers: These agents are in charge of buying tyres from foreign manufacturers and they also carry out the commercial process in the country. In terms of RL processes, they only manage commercial returns and the corresponding delivery to the appropriate manufacturer. This flow is presented in Figure 2.

•

Distributors: These actors buy tyres to manufacturers and/or importers and sell them to the final customer. Their RL activities concern the following activities: collection of tyres at the end of their life cycle, collection of commercial returns; their classification for final disposition according to product quality conditions; and distribution. These flows are presented in Figure 3.

•

Assemblers (automotive industry): These actors use to buy tyres to manufacturers, importers and distributors for their own purpose of assembly vehicles. Their RL practices are limited to collection of commercial returns and delivery to the corresponding supplier. Figure 4 presents the structure of these flows.

•

Fleet: This actor in the supply chain is in charge of buying tyres to manufacturers, importers, distributors or assemblers. Their RL practices mainly concern tyre collection at the end of their life cycle, classification depending on quality standards and distribution (for either remanufacturing or final disposition). These flows are depicted in Figure 5.

•

Remanufacturers: These actors receive and/or buy recycled tyres. Their practices regarding RL concern the collection of both commercial returns and tyres at the end of their life cycle, the selection of those that can be used for remanufacturing or as raw material for new tyres, and the distribution of final products. These flows are depicted in Figure 6.

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Figure 1

Model of RL flows for tyres manufacturers Commercial returns Recovery process

Manufacturing waste and non-conformities

For manufacturing

Final destination

Figure 2

Production process

Selection process

For recycling

For final disposition

Distribution process


Tires and raw material manufacturers

Other supply chains

Model of RL flows for importers Final destination Commercial returns

Figure 3

Recovery process

Return to manufacturer

Selection process

Model of RL flows for distributors Commercial returns Returns at end of life cycle

Recovery process

For remanufacture

For reuse



Remanufacturer

Secondary markets

Selection process

Devolutions

For final disposition

Distribution process Importer

Manufacturer

Dump

Final destination

Modelling reverse logistics practices Figure 4

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Model of RL flows for vehicle assemblers Final destination Commercial returns

Recovery process

Return to manufacturer

Selection process

Return to importer

Figure 5

Model of RL flows for fleet Returns at end of life cycle

Final destination

Figure 6

Recovery process

Selection process

Return for manufacturing

To final disposition



Remanufacturers

Incinerator

Dump

Model of RL flows for remanufacturers Returns at end of life cycle

Recovery process

Selection process

Commercial returns

Final destination

Return for manufacturing




Final user

Incinerator

Dump

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As stated before, our research followed a rigorous research methodological approach as in previous works in literature (e.g., Li and Olorunniwo, 2008; Halabi et al., 2013). Based on the information collected during the visits, we developed a generic (aggregated) RL process for this manufacturing sector (see Figure 7). The construction of a generic conceptual modelling framework for the whole recycled tyres process allows us to understand the sequence of RL practices adopted by the companies within their supply chain. This conceptual framework is presented in Figure 7. It is to note that, in general terms, we found during our visits that companies setup their processes based on some knowledge of material flows. Different products may go through different routes, and same products with different state of reusing also may undergo different operations. Figure 7

Modelling framework of RL for the aggregated supply chain of recycled tyres Vehicle assemblers Distributors

Importers

Remanufacturers Manufacturers

Commercial returns

Returns at end of life cycle

Fleet

Returns from production Recovery process Selection process

Devolutions


Products can be used

Repair or remanufacturing Distribution process Incinerator /dump

Renovation or reuse

Recycling


Final user/fleet

Secondary markets

Raw material for other chains


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4.2 Results of survey We now present the results obtained from the survey that was designed to overcome the gap between theory and practices observed. Results show that the actor with the highest level of inputs to the RL chain is the final users (consumers) with 69% of the total. This induces that the highest contributions to the reverse supply chain in terms of recovered products corresponds to tyres at the end of their lifecycle (88.5%). Our survey also found that 3% of participant enterprises declared to carry out some kind of collection process, 9.4% make selection, and 33.3% of them perform some type of distribution. These values are very low and reflect the lack of awareness from the community of this industrial sector regarding used tyres recovery. The absence of any type of incentives for both final consumers and other actors of the supply chain, mainly economic/financial, can also explain this trend, as shown in Figure 8, where 88% of participants in this survey find no incentive at all to carry out any recovery process. However, a total of 13.9% of the participants declared that performing RL practices allow them to either reduce production costs (7.4% of participants), recover the value of tyres (4.8% of participants) or maximise economic benefits (3.7% of participants). It is to note that legal, social and ethical issues also motivate the actors of this industrial sector to practice RL. Indeed, our survey found that a little more of 15% of participants are motivated by the reduction of environmental impacts, 8% are motivated by either moral principles or the improvement of social benefit. Finally, compliance with norms and national legislation constitutes a motivation for 35.2% of participants in this survey (17.6% each), although current legislation does not include a specific regulation or control policy for tyres reuse, remanufacturing and disposal. Figure 8

Incentives among the members of the supply chain to recycle used tyres

Another important insight from the survey concerns the investment devoted to recycling activities. We found that 80.8% of surveyed firms invest a maximum of 1% of the total sales income in activities seeking to product recovery. This is very low and puts in evidence the need of creating incentives for companies, especially the smaller ones, to do so. On the other side, the survey showed that 5.9% of firms implement some kind of

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management strategy for used tyres or any of its components recovery with final destination the tyres forward supply chain or another supply chain. However, as we also found that 87.5% of firms do not have running any environmental programme (e.g., ISO 14000 certification, environmental seal, or similar), it can be inferred that the process of tyres remanufacturing does not follow the environmental standards worldwide accepted. Figure 9

Ratio of product recovery in tyre manufacturing

Figure 10 Issues regarding the current recovery ratios

In addition, as shown in Figure 9, only 15.4% of used tyres are completely recycled for reuse or remanufacturing, and 80.8% are partially recovered for use in this industrial sector or another. Hence, tyres remanufacturing is not a common practice for the actors of the RL chain under study. As explanation of this matter, 25% of surveyed firms state that this is due to mistrust from consumers, while 4.2% of them consider that the difference between the prices of new and remanufactured tyres is not so significant as to persuade


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the final user to buy remanufactured tyres. These results are presented in Figure 10 and Figure 11. Figure 11 Reasons explaining why current recovery ratio could not be increased

Finally, our survey highlights that 25% of surveyed actors consider the implementation in Colombia of a structured model for collection, selection, and redistribution of used tyres at the end of their lifecycle will highly benefit the reduction of environmental impacts. Additionally, 10% of firms consider that this activity will contribute to increase the labour in a general manner for the society.

4.3 Statistical relations between variables In order to carry out a deeper analysis of results, we run a chi-square test to determine the level of dependency between variables. We obtained a total of 30 cases in which the combination of variables was under the 5% of error. An association test (λ) allowed us to also explain the dependency relation between variables; a value of 1 for λ means that there is a strong relation between variables. Table 1 presents the set of 11 cases selected for further analysis in which a strong relation between variables was found. The study revealed a strong relation between processes applied by enterprises for collecting tyres at the end of lifecycle with the fact that no incentives exists for the agents that generate the return of tyres. This again confirms the hypothesis that there are not any economic incentives in the country that may motivate the different actors in the supply chain to recycle tyres. Another interesting output of this analysis is the direct relation between the existence of used tyres collection and selection processes with the fact that firms carry out such processes because of the existence of formal legislation. Indeed, as explained in Section 2, the Colombian government released a set of formal regulations for tyre recycling and remanufacturing in July 2010. As this study was carried out during the first semester that year, it is logic to observe that actors of the tyres supply chain were not particularly interested in collecting, selecting, recycling or remanufacturing used tyres, unless a statutory directive requires it. In contrast, the survey revealed a strong relation between variables concerning ‘cost reduction’ and ‘existence of internal unit/department in charge of collection/selection processes of recycled tyres’. However, this should not be

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surprising since it is very common that all department or units at any firm are interested in finding ways for reducing costs or maximising revenues. As a consequence, we can infer that, in addition to legal requirements, one of the most important motivations for an enterprise to carry out RL practices is the economic benefits that can be obtained, at least in this industrial sector in Colombia. However, we must remark that there are many other issues of interest nowadays, such as positioning in the marketplace, ethical/moral issues, society welfare, etc. that must be taken into account by the management team when deciding to run a RL programme. Table 1

Statistical relations between variables Asymp. sig (2-Sided)

λ

The firm has a formal process to collect tyres at the end of their lifecycle * There is no incentive for the agent that generates tyre returns

0.0001

1

An internal unit/department is in charge of the selection process of recycling raw material * Compliance with legislation is a motivation to carry out reverse logistics processes

0.00008

0.71

An internal unit/department is in charge of the selection process of recycling raw material * Compliance with legislation is a motivation to carry out reverse logistics processes

0.00008

0.71

The firm has a formal process to collect tyres at the end of their lifecycle * The firm has a formal process to select tyres for remanufacturing

0.0001

0.72

The firm has a formal process to collect tyres at the end of their lifecycle * The firm has a formal process to select tyres for final disposition

0.0003

0.62

The ratio of recovered product is not higher due to market conditions * What is the ration between the prices of new and remanufactured tyres?

0.014

1

There are not any tyre recovery processes * The ratio of recovered product is not higher because saving when buying remanufactured tyres are not significant

0.001

1

The firm has a formal process to select tyres for remanufacturing * What is the ration between the prices of new and remanufactured tyres?

0.0003

1

The firm has a formal process to select tyres for final disposition * What is the ration between the prices of new and remanufactured tyres?

0.0003

1

An internal unit/department is in charge of managing commercial returns * Cost saving is an objective for the firm to perform reverse logistics processes

0.001

0.65

0.00001

0.85

Variables

An internal unit/department is in charge of selecting recycled tyres for reuse * Income increase and utility maximisation are objectives for the firm to perform reverse logistics processes

5

Conclusions

The practice of RL has been accepted as a critical part of a SSCM strategy and it has broad impacts on environment and human health (Halabi et al., 2013). However, some companies still abandon end-of-life products with hazardous materials into land directly. The objective of this paper was to present an exploratory study on the analysis of RL practices in Colombian enterprises belonging to the tyre manufacturing supply chain. We


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have described, using both modelling framework and statistical analysis, the practices reported by a set of 25 companies of this complex supply chain. One of the limitations of our paper lies in the fact that we looked at only a part of this particular supply chain; so we caution a generalisation of our findings to any industrial sector, especially because we do not provide corroborations from the trade literature. It is critical to observe that there is no social responsibility from the actors of this supply chain. Hence, further research can (or must) focus on identifying opportunities to create social responsibility programmes in this sector to be run in the short-term, as part of the creation of coherent guidelines and recommendations to industry to implement sustainable logistics practices in a more general sense. Another suggestion for future research is to carry out a large-scale field study or survey across many industrial sectors. The insights from these studies may help decision-makers to design further legislation for collection and remanufacturing of tyres at the end of lifecycle.

Acknowledgements Part of the work of Carolina Pirachicán-Mayorga was supported under Young Researcher Grant number 120-2008 from the Colombian Administrative Department for the Development of Science and Technology (COLCIENCIAS) in collaboration with the Colombian National Learning Service (SENA). Authors would like to thank the work of students from the Postgraduate Research Training programme in RL for performing the interviews at companies. Part of the work of Jairo R. Montoya-Torres was supported by a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (project ‘DISRUPT’, grant no. ESR-299255).

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