An improved compromise ranking method for evaluation of environmentally conscious manufacturing programs

An environmentally responsible or environmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM) program addresses the environmental impact of the interrelated decisions that are made at various stages of product life, from conception to design, raw ECM programs consumption, processing, delivery, use, recycling and/or disposal. The evaluation of alternative ECM programs for producing a given product is similar to many strategic initiatives and their justification methodologies. This similarity arises from the fact that there are multiple attributes that need to be considered, many of which have long term and broad implications for an organisation. Only a few decision making methods were proposed in the past for ECM program evaluation for producing a given product. There is a need for a systematic and logical scientific method or mathematical tool to guide organisations in taking a proper decision about ECM program evaluation. This paper presents a multiple attribute decision making methodology for evaluation of environmentally conscious manufacturing programs for producing a given product. The methodology is based on an improved compromise ranking method considering the ECM program selection attributes and their relative importance. The proposed 'ECM program selection index' helps to evaluate and rank the ECM programs for producing a given product. An example is included to illustrate the approach.