An AHP based-model for sustainable manufacturing performance evaluation in automotive industry

Abstract

Sustainable manufacturing has become a critical issue for industries worldwide. In order to survive in today's competitive business environment, adopting sustainable manufacturing practices has become a necessity. A performance evaluation system is crucial for achieving a successful sustainable manufacturing in the automotive industry. Hence, an AHP based-model for sustainable manufacturing performance evaluation was developed in this study. Firstly, a set of initial key performance measures for sustainable manufacturing evaluation has been identified and derived from the literature. The measures were developed based on the triple bottom line of sustainability of environmental, economic, and social, consisting of nine criteria and further divided into a total of 41 subcriteria. Secondly, a survey was conducted to confirm the adaptability of the initial measures with industry practices. The results indicated that all the initial measures are highly important and thus proposed as the key performance measures of sustainable manufacturing evaluation for automotive industry. Finally, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is applied to sustainable manufacturing performance evaluation based on the measures. Relative importance weight of all the measures is determined by summarizing the opinions of experts. Quality and cost were found to be the top two important measures in evaluating sustainable manufacturing performance, while emission and supplier were the least important measures. It indicated that the automotive industry is still focusing more on the economic factor. The proposed model was then evaluated using a case study company from the automotive industry. The results show the existing performance level on strengths and weaknesses and provide directions for companies to take appropriate actions in improving their performance. It is hoped that the model enables and assists automotive companies in achieving the higher performance and so as increasing the competitiveness.