Varinder Kumar Mittal

Development of a model of barriers to environmentally conscious manufacturing implementation

Manufacturing firms consume energy and natural resources in highly unsustainable manner and release large amounts of green house gases leading to many economic, environmental and social problems from climate change to local waste disposal. Consciousness about these issues has led to a new manufacturing paradigm of environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM). However, there are various barriers to the implementation of ECM. A proper understanding and analysis of these barriers will allow the management of the company and government to prioritise their focus to mitigate root barriers for effective implementation of ECM. This paper aims at identifying the barriers to ECM, developing a model of these barriers using statistical analysis and testing the model using structural equation modelling technique. The results provide three types of barriers – internal, policy and economic. The results show that internal barriers are the root barriers and cause policy and economic barriers. It reflects that the barriers which are internal to the organisation should be mitigated first for effective implementation of ECM.

Comparison of Drivers and Barriers to Green Manufacturing: A Case of India and Germany

In the recent past, environmental issues have gained momentum because of rapid economic and industrial growth of highly populated developing/emerging nations which are posing serious environmental and social problems not only in their own countries but also to the world. A growing number of organizations have begun or are willing to work towards implementing Green Manufacturing (GM) in these nations. But the adoption of GM is a challenge for the organizations in these nations as motivating factors (drivers) are not facilitated and inhibiting factors (barriers) are not mitigated, which pose a heavy burden. This paper aims to statistically analyze the drivers and barriers to GM implementation for developed and emerging nations so that the organizations can strategically focus on these factors to reach to a higher level of competitiveness. This study will help decision makers in manufacturing organizations and in policy of both nations to strategically leverage the collaborative efforts by effective implementation of GM.

A bibliometric analysis of green manufacturing and similar frameworks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the green manufacturing and similar frameworks in order to trace the origin, definitions, scope, similarities, differences, and publications of these manufacturing frameworks. Design/methodology/approach – A review of 113 research articles is conducted for various terms, namely, green manufacturing (GM); environmentally conscious manufacturing; environmentally responsible manufacturing; environmentally benign manufacturing; sustainable manufacturing; clean manufacturing; cleaner production; sustainable production with reference to triple bottom line, product life cycle engineering, systems approach, resource and energy efficiency, supply chain, pollution prevention and closed loop system/6R. Findings – It can be said with reasonable confidence that all these eight frameworks have been used interchangeably by researchers but it requires some standardization. It has been observed during literature review that to standardize the terminology researchers have to...

Development of a structural model of environmentally conscious manufacturing drivers

Purpose – Manufacturing firms consume energy and natural resources in highly unsustainable manner and release huge amounts of green house gases leading to many economic, environmental and social problems; from local waste disposal to climate change. Consciousness about these issues has lead to a new manufacturing paradigm of environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM). There exist many social, legislative, policy, economic, internal, and environmental factors which can motivate and/or force industry to adopt ECM. The purpose of this paper is to identify the drivers for ECM, developing a model of these drivers using statistical analysis and testing the model using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Design/methodology/approach – The basic steps of methodology are ECM driver development, survey instrument development, data collection, model proposition, and model validation. The main data analysis approaches are exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and SEM to develop a mode...

Assessment of hierarchy and inter-relationships of barriers to environmentally conscious manufacturing adoption

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop hierarchy and inter-relationship among barriers to environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM) adoption using an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique. The paper will demonstrate how ISM supports policy makers in the government and industry in identifying and understanding interdependencies among barriers to ECM. Interdependencies among barriers will be derived and structured into a hierarchy in order to derive subsystems of interdependent elements with corresponding driving power and dependency. Design/methodology/approach – ISM was used to identify hierarchy and inter-relationships among barriers to ECM adoption and to classify the barriers according to their driving and dependence power using MICMAC analysis. The barriers to ECM adoption are identified through the review of literature followed by developing a model of barriers using ISM based on the inputs from experts from industry and academia. Findings – The main findings of the paper in...

Development of an Interpretive Structural Model of Obstacles to Environmentally Conscious Technology adoption in Indian Industry

Rapid economic and industrial growth of emerging economies like India is posing environmental and social problems not only to their own countries but also to the world. The adoption of environmentally conscious technologies (ECT) in emerging countries faces many obstacles. This paper identifies eleven obstacles to ECT adoption from review of literature. Further an interpretive structural modelling technique has been used to develop a structural model to obtain a proper hierarchy and interrelationship among the obstacles. This model will help the decision makers in industry and government to prioritize the focus on the obstacles for adoption of ECT

Development and validation of performance measures for environmentally conscious manufacturing

Growing awareness of environmental issues has put business and government under pressure to reduce the environmental impacts involved in the production and consumption of goods and services leading to a new paradigm of environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM). However, because of the lack of ECM performance measures, judgements about ECM have become costs in ethical or moral terms. In this paper, 11 performance measures for environmentally conscious manufacturing have been identified based on the review of 78 research papers/articles and discussion with practitioners. A survey of 285 industries in India, using a questionnaire specifically developed for this study, has been done to validate the identified performance measures. The developed performance measures have been found to be highly reliable using Cronbachs alpha. The validity of the performance measures has been assessed through factor analysis by using SPSS 11.5 for Windows® statistical tool.

Modeling drivers for successful adoption of environmentally conscious manufacturing

Purpose – This paper aims at developing an interpretive structural model of drivers for environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM). It will demonstrate how interpretive structural modeling (ISM) supports policy makers in the government and industry in identifying and understanding interdependencies among drivers for ECM. Interdependencies among drivers will be derived and structured into a hierarchy to derive subsystems of interdependent elements with corresponding driving power and dependency. Design/methodology/approach – ISM has been used to identify hierarchy and inter-relationships among drivers for ECM adoption and to classify the drivers according to their driving and dependence power using MICMAC analysis. The drivers for ECM adoption are identified through the review of literature followed by developing a model of drivers using ISM. Findings – The main findings of the paper include the development of an ISM model of drivers for ECM adoption. The developed model divided the identified drivers i...

Fuzzy TOPSIS method for ranking barriers to environmentally conscious manufacturing implementation: government, industry and expert perspectives

A growing number of organisations have begun working towards implementation of Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing (ECM) because of increased concerns about the pollution increase, natural resources depletion and global warming. But some barriers hinder the implementation of ECM systems. In order to mitigate these barriers, the ranking of barriers is very essential as high-ranked barriers can be taken up first to address the issue more effectively within the availability of resources and capacity to improve environment. This paper aims at identifying and ranking barriers to ECM implementation. Twelve barriers have been identified and grouped as economic, internal, policy and societal barriers. A fuzzy TOPSIS multi-criteria decision model has been developed to rank these barriers from government, industry and expert perspectives by using the data inputs from various sources in India. The ranking of the barriers from different perspectives will help the decision/policy makers in government and industry to mitigate these barriers in an effective manner.

Drivers and Barriers of Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing: A Comparative Study of Indian and German Organizations

Rapid economic and industrial growth of emerging economies like India is posing serious environmental and social challenges not only in their own countries but also to the world. Because of increased concerns, a growing number of organizations has begun working towards the implementation of Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing (ECM). This paper aims to identify drivers and barriers for ECM implementation for developed and emerging economies so that the organizations can strategically focus on these factors to reach to a higher level of competitiveness. This study will help decision makers in Indian manufacturing organizations to strategically leverage the global competitiveness in near future by effective implementation of ECM.