An empirical investigation and prioritizing critical barriers of green manufacturing implementation practices through VIKOR approach

Pages235-254
Date21 October 2019
Published date21 October 2019
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-08-2019-0060
AuthorMahakdeep Singh,Kanwarpreet Singh,APS Sethi
Subject MatterPublic policy & environmental management,Environmental technology & innovation
An empirical investigation and
prioritizing critical barriers
of green manufacturing
implementation practices
through VIKOR approach
Mahakdeep Singh
Chandigarh University, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, India
Kanwarpreet Singh
Punjabi University, Patiala, India, and
APS Sethi
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College, Fatehgarh Sahib, India
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical barriers of green manufacturing
implementation practices in Indian SMEs with the VIKOR approach.
Design/methodology/approach Challenges faced in the implementation of green manufacturing by Indian
SMEs have been extracted from literature review, and questionnaire survey of Indian SMEs is done. The responses
are further annealed and analysed using a factor analysis technique and ranked with the VIKOR technique.
Findings The literature was studied, and various challenges were listed and were grouped into six critical
latent challenges by using the factor analysis technique, and it was found that Economic constraints tops
with the VIKOR technique. The recognition of the outcomes of critical barriers was assumed to be substantial
in the current scenario.
Originality/value Present study reveals that green manufacturing implementation in Indian SMEs faces
many challenges. The outcomes of the study will help green manufacturing practitioners, HR executives and
managers in the various manufacturing organizations to develop clarity in understanding and developing
strategies for the implementation of green manufacturing. Hence, the information obtained fromthe empirical
examination of barriers in implementing green manufacturing will be helpful in improving the overall
implementation plan.
Keywords SMEs, Barriers, VIKOR, Green manufacturing
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The economy is growing at a great pace in all over the world, and industrialization is the main
reason behind the growth. Industries are growing and so is the rate of pollution in natural
resources, i.e. water, soil and air due to the waste produced by the industries. Nowadays, with the
increased pressure from the government and increasing market demand of eco-friendly products,
the demand of green manufactured products is increasing and so is the pressure on the various
organizations, i.e., organizations are being forced to change adamant norms by various
world-wide societies that are proactive in the field of environmental concerns (Gandhi et al,2018).
With the increase in demand to implement the green manufacturing techniques in the
manufacturing of different products within the organization at different levels, there are various
challenges that bar the implementation of green manufacturing within the organization
(Govindan, Kannan and Shankar, 2015; Govindan, Diabat and Shankar, 2015). This manuscript
is focussed mainly on the various challenges being faced by the organizations towards
implementing green manufacturing within the organization.
World Journal of Science,
Technology and Sustainable
Development
Vol. 17 No. 2, 2020
pp. 235-254
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2042-5945
DOI10.1108/WJSTSD-08-2019-0060
Received 24 August 2019
Revised 18 September 2019
Accepted 19 September 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5945.htm
235
VIKOR
approach
The term green manufacturingcan be understood in two different ways: the production of
greenproducts, especially those which are used in renewable energy sources and clean
technology equipment of all kinds, and the greeningof manufacturing means the reduction of
pollution and waste by limiting the use of natural resources, recycling and reusing the waste,
and reducing emissions. The USA remains the worlds largest manufacturing economy,
producing 21 per cent of global manufactured products. China is second with 15 per cent and
Japan is third with 12 per cent production, according to National Association of Manufacturers.
Pillars for the coming of the twenty-first century greenand zero-carboneconomies quickly
developing renewable energy and clean tech divisions are considered among the best chances to
understand this objective. According to the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises,
existing definition for MSMEs (miniaturized scale, little and medium ventures) in India is
characterized below (Table I).
The rest of the paper is as follows: Section 2 gives the literature review on the various
parameters of green manufacturing and MCDM techniques along with literature gaps.
Section 3 provides the methodology used during the research for the completion of the
paper, Section 4 gives the information about the Factor Analysis method, Section 5 provides
information on the VIKOR technique and its implementation in the present study, and
Section 6 gives the conclusion of the current study and research implications.
2. Literature review
2.1 Green manufacturing literature
Nowadays, industries are adopting green manufacturing practices at every level of
procurementespecially supply chain management (SCM) consideringimpact on environment.
Furthermore whenever SCM evolved with the flow of activities from control, supply and
execute in cost-effective manner to challenge supply demand mismatch with proactive
approach. Various problems are encountered while executing Green manufacturing practices,
and SMEs still cannot identify barriers or blockages in implemented green supply chain
management (GCSM) practices in a better way. Govindan et al. (2014) surveyed the wor k
undertaken to identify barriers, and, in total, 47 barriers were identified after examining the
detailed pre-defined questionnaire to meet the desired objectives. An approach to identify
barriersis processed and analysedusing a hierarchy process,and their respective prioritiesare
evaluatedbased on their stabilityas designated in different ranks basedon processes and their
mutual interdependence in a system. However, the application of GCSM system is found in
refining, manufacturing, design, packaging and transportation areas, as a result of which
companies are setting their own manufacturing plants in Indian Hemisphere citing revenue
growth in highlycompetitive market; in thiscontext, a study has been instigated to develop a
structuredmodel that aims to identifydifferent barriers in implementing GCSM systemin the
automobile industry (Luthra et al., 2011).
Parker et al. (2009) discussed factors and imbibed them in internal and external brackets
that involves achievable indices in enterprises like domain information about practices,
with the attitude to adopt practices with increased deliverables with improvement at the
environment level at internal pace. Even though author discussed and emphasized on
Classification Micro Small Medium
Manufacturing enterprises Rs 2.5m/Rs 25 lakh ($50) Rs 50m/Rs 5 crore ($1m) Rs 100m/Rs 10 crore
($2m)
Service enterprises Rs 1m/ Rs 10 lakh
($20,000)
Rs 20m/Rs 2 crore
($4,000,000)
Rs 50m/Rs 5 crore
($1m)
Table I.
Definition of small
and medium
enterprises in India
236
WJSTSD
17,2

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