Sustainable Green Development and Manufacturing Performance through Modern Production Techniques

Chandan Deep Singh, Harleen Kaur

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000487978
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Operazioni
• Index: Business

Various Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques in one book: 13 MCDM techniques have been applied, namely, WSM, WPM, WASPAS, GRA, SMART, CRITIC, ENTROPY, EDAS, MOORA, AHP, TOPSIS, VIKOR, and new tools: MDEMATEL, Fuzzy MDEMATEL, Modified Fuzzy TOPSIS and Modified Fuzzy VIKOR. To date, no other book possesses this many tools.

Various quantitative techniques: Different quantitative techniques have been applied, namely, Cronbach alpha, Chi-square and ANOVA (for demographic analysis), Percent Point Score and Central Tendency (response analysis), Factor Analysis, Correlation and Regression. To date, no other book possesses this many tools.

Interpretive Structural Modelling: ISM has been applied for verifying MCDM results through MICMAC analysis and ISM model thus paving the way for model through SEM. Structural Equation Modelling: SEM using AMOS in PASW has been applied for model development.

New MCDM techniques developed: In the process during qualitative analysis, new tools have been developed and their results have been compared with other existing MCDM tools and the results are encouraging. The new techniques are MDEMATEL, Fuzzy MDEMATEL, Modified Fuzzy TOPSIS and Modified Fuzzy VIKOR.

Qualitative Model Developed: As the title says, Sustainable Green Development and Manufacturing Performance through Modern Production Techniques. It is a need-of-the-hour topic, as industries must maintain their performance (sustainable development) and, while sustaining, they have to keep in mind green issues (that is, environment-related issues, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic) and adopt advanced manufacturing and maintenance techniques. A model for this has been developed which will be helpful to both academicians and industrialists.

Real-time Case Studies: Case studies in two industries of differing origins, different manufacturing sectors, different products, and comparing their units in the country of their origin and India.

Dr. Chandan Deep Singh is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab (India). He is a co-author of Adolescents, Family and Consumer Behaviour (Routledge, 2020) and of Manufacturing Competency and Strategic Success in the Automobile Industry (CRC Press, 2019).

Dr. Harleen Kaur is a manager (HR) at DELBREC Industries, Pvt. Ltd., Chandigarh. She co-authored Adolescents, Family and Consumer Behaviour (Routledge, 2020).

1 Sustainable Development

DOI: 10.1201/9781003189510-1

1.1 Introduction

Nowadays, manufacturing firms are all facing increasing pressure to become greener and more environmentally friendly. Therefore, they have had to review or instigate changes in their manufacturing processes to able to cope with the community and concerned government. The modern sustainability and environmental factors are considered important topics for strategic business, management, manufacturing and decision when developing a new product. Manufacturing firms therefore often develop sustainable programmes with the objective of “greening” their own products and processes and reducing the impacts of their activities on the environment. The main aim of green manufacturing and sustainability is to minimize the environmental damage due to the manufacturing firms. In this chapter, the significance of sustainable development, green engineering, advanced manufacturing and maintenance techniques, competency, and their function in manufacturing performance are discussed.

The manufacturing sector plays a significant role in the economy of almost every country in the world, and certainly in all the developed countries. In 1990, India and China had similar gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. After that, driven by its manufacturing sector, China’s economy has grown faster than India’s and its GDP per capita on a PPP basis is 90% higher than India’s Gross domestic product per capita. To attain higher rates of monetary growth, India immediately needs to strengthen its own manufacturing sector. The Indian economy is firmly on the path of stable growth; even throughout the last decade when other countries have been in the grip of a massive slowdown, India continued to enjoy a comfortable economic position. The growth in the manufacturing sector is dependent on the investment climate. The structural reforms since 1990 have made some progress, and despite current setbacks, it is generally recognized that the reform process in India can’t be reversed, and sooner or later these reforms will be executed. Nevertheless, the long-term competitive capability of Indian industries depends on their manufacture efficiency.

Manufacturing efficiency is dependent on the ability to develop, import and adapt for new-age technologies, amongst other factors. India has made significant progress in various spheres of science and technology over the last few years, and takes pride in having a strong network of science and technology organizations, skilled manpower and an inventive knowledge base. Considering the rapid pace of globalization, fast-depleting material resources, and increasing competitiveness among different nations, a need to protect intellectual property and strengthening of technology base have become an important issue. While India’s technical talent is recognized worldwide, there have been serious institutional gaps in promoting industry research methodology and interaction with various institutes.

The structural transformation of the Indian economy over the last three decades had been spectacular, mainly due to the growth of its services segment, which now reports for about 50% of the GDP. However, the rapid growth in the service sector, which is attaining maturity, before the growth in the manufacturing industry is not a strong indication. An information-based financial system cannot be maintained in the long run unless it is adequately supported by a growing manufacturing financial system. Furthermore, a service financial system cannot persist to thrive on a long-term basis in a country where over 80% of the population is educated below the middle-school level.

Some sectors, such as information technology and pharmaceuticals, compete globally, employing perhaps 2% of the population and bringing wealth to various parts of India. At the same time, around 60% of the population remains dependent upon the Agricultural segment, distribution less than one-quarter of India’s GDP. Without reforms, agriculture will continue to suffer from prevalent under-employment, low wages and depend on the monsoon. This will result in continued urban immigration, but without the expansion of an industrial segment this will lead to a rise of unemployment in many cities. The growth of this pattern is unsustainable.

It is estimated that India needs to create 8–9 million new jobs every year, besides agriculture, to stay at its current unemployment level of 7%. Manufacturing jobs are ideal for workers, transitioning them out of agriculture as service jobs require a high level of education and expertise. The revitalization of the manufacturing segment can create close to 2.6 million new jobs every year. With the removal of all quantitative restrictions on imports and the falling import tariffs under the world trade organization regime, it becomes a bigger concern for the Indian industry to improvise its competitive edge.

Indian manufacturing industries have always been pushed from the protected environment of the licence-permit-quota regime to an uncertain environment of liberalization, privatization and globalization, which provides intense Global competition. Indian industries quite often follow an opportunistic approach with respect to growth as opposed to the capability-driven approach and paid very little strategic attention to their shop floors in the last few decades. Now, gradually Indian manufacturing industries have started re-organizing themselves, driven by their Global competition.

Facilities departments are under tremendous pressure to quickly provide more information, and at a lower cost to the company. At the same time, many companies have reduced staff to a bare minimum. Maintenance professionals are presented with more difficult challenges today than ever before. The biggest obstacle of all confronting maintenance professionals is being forced to do more with fewer resources. Maintenance departments must deliver superior service, comply with regulatory requirements and provided detail financial accountably all within the confines of limited and/or reduce budgets. In order to meet these challenges, maintenance professionals are arming themselves with economical computerized maintenance management systems. In recent years flexible, dependable and economical computerized maintenance management systems have become available to help fight the never-ending struggle to operate and maintain the built environment.

1.2 Sustainability

A large and growing number of manufacturers are realizing substantial financial and environmental benefits from sustainable business practices. Sustainable manufacturing is the creation of manufactured products through economically-sound processes that minimize negative environmental impacts while conserving energy and natural resources. Sustainable manufacturing also enhances employee, community and product safety. A growing number of companies are treating sustainability as an important objective in their strategy and operations to increase growth and global competitiveness. This trend has reached well beyond the small niche of those who traditionally positioned themselves as green, and now includes many prominent businesses across many different industry sectors. In many cases, these efforts are having significant results. There are a number of reasons why companies are pursuing sustainability:

• Increase operational efficiency by reducing costs and waste
• Respond to or reach new customers and increase competitive advantage
• Protect and strengthen brand and reputation and build public trust
• Build long-term business viability and success
• Respond to regulatory constraints and opportunities

Sustainable engineering is the process of designing or operating systems such that they use energy and resources sustainably, in other words, at a rate that does not compromise the natural environment, or the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to achieve their own needs.

As customer demands are changing rapidly in terms of sophistication of products and services they require, organizations need to become more responsive to customer and market needs. In fact, the integrated management of product-related information through the entire product lifecycle – known as product lifecycle management (PLM) – is a key element for companies in creating sustainable value. Thus, in order to proactively respond to these new demands, managers require up-to-date and accurate performance information on its business. This performance information needs to be integrated and accessible to support the monitoring and the improvement of the performance of an organization and its business processes. Thus, a performance measurement system (PMS) is a vital part of a company’s managerial system. The PMS of an organization can be defined as a set of indicators used to quantify the efficiency and/or the effectiveness of their actions.

1.3 Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services based upon which the economy and society depend. The desired result is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

While the modern concept of sustainable development is derived mostly from the 1987 Brundtland Report, it is also rooted in earlier ideas about sustainable forest management and twentieth-century environmental concerns. As the concept developed, it has shifted its focus more towards the economic development, social development and environmental protection for future generations. It has been suggested that the term ‘sustainability’ should be viewed as humanity’s target goal of human-ecosystem equilibrium, while ‘sustainable development’ refers to the holistic approach and temporal processes that lead us to the end point of sustainability. Modern economies are endeavouring to reconcile ambitious economic development and obligations of preserving natural resources and ecosystems, as the two are usually seen as of conflicting nature. Instead of holding climate change commitments and other sustainability measures as a remedy to economic development, turning and leveraging them into market opportunities will do greater good. The economic development brought by such organized principles and practices in an economy is called Managed Sustainable Development (MSD). The concept of sustainable development has been, and still is, subject to criticism, including the question of what is to be sustained. It has been argued that there is no such thing as a sustainable use of a non-renewable resource, since any positive rate of exploitation will eventually lead to the exhaustion of earth’s finite stock; this perspective renders the Industrial Revolution as a whole unsustainable.

After the Brundtland Commission first introduced the concept of sustainable development, a growing number of national and international organizations, governments, communities and companies are embracing sustainability. In this way, companies are facing tough challenges to succeed in a global competitive market especially to address this issue of sustainability. It has inspired many researchers and practitioners to search for ways to use tools for measuring and evaluating their progress. In this context, sustainability indicators have emerged as one widely accepted tool. Therefore, an increasing number of voluntary initiatives and companies have begun developing and using sustainability indicators. Such indicators might be used to improve a company’s public image and thus create a competitive advantage through product/service differentiation. As a result, companies around the world have recognized the need to respond appropriately to the sustainable development challenge and, consequently, many have changed their business activities in product development. This increasing upsurge of incorporation of sustainability in the processes to all phases of a product’s life resulted into the need of assessment of its performance.

In the current competitive and regulated landscape, manufacturing enterprises struggle to improve their performances, encompassing environmental as well as economic objectives, towards sustainable manufacturing and the future Eco-factories. Experts and scholars have developed more and more indicators, usually referred to as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), as a means for steering and controlling the complex factory systems, characterized by dynamic interdependencies among different subsystems and external variables. The present study proposes a synthetic framework to bring back hundreds of environmental and economic KPIs to a few sound intuitive categories, in order to reduce duplications, recuperate meaningfulness and consciousness, facilitate inter and intra-organizational benchmarking. The approach, based on input/output modelling of physical flows (products, materials, energy, emissions, etc.) in manufacturing systems, can be used at different hierarchical levels in the plant and in different factory lifecycle phases (design, operations and re-design). The application of the framework is demonstrated on an extensive review of performance indicators gathered in industrial cases and in the literature.

Sustainability indicators have emerged as a key element in a market where customers are interested in the environmental impacts of the products they consume. Companies are trying to incorporate them into their Performance Measurement Systems (PMS). However, there is little information available to managers to guide them on the incorporation. Hence, this paper presents the results of an action research carried out to improve the PMS of a Brazilian consumer goods company with the incorporation of sustainability indicators. The findings illustrate that is possible to incorporate them into the PMS as long as there are stakeholders interested in establishing strategic objectives for sustainability.

The cement industries are facing challenges to implement sustainable manufacturing into their products and processes. Cement manufacturing has remarked as an intensive consumer of natural raw materials, fossil fuels, energy, and a major source of multiple pollutants. Thus, evaluating the sustainable manufacturing in this industry is become a necessity. This paper proposes a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for evaluating the sustainable manufacturing believed to be appropriate to the cement industry based on the triple bottom line of sustainability. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is applied to prioritize the performance indicators by summarizing the opinions of experts. It is hoped that the proposed KPIs enables and assists the cement industry to achieve the higher performance in sustainable manufacturing and so as to increase the competitiveness (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Parameters of sustainable development.

Over the past decade, several articles on corporate performance measurement system (PMS) related ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Author’s Biography
• 1 Sustainable Development
• 2 Green Engineering
• 3 Modern Production Techniques
• 4 Competency and Performance of Manufacturing Industry
• 5 Reliability and Factor Analysis of Preliminary Data
• 6 Qualitative Analysis
• 7 Fuzzy Techniques
• 8 Model Development Techniques
• 9 Case Studies in Manufacturing Industries
• 10 Sustainable Green Development Model
• References
• Appendix A Questionnaire Research Work
• Appendix B Analytical Hierarchy Process Questionnaire
• Index