An integrated sustainable manufacturing strategy framework using fuzzy analytic network process

Abstract

This paper adopts a fuzzy analytic network process approach for developing a sustainable manufacturing strategy under the influence of stakeholders' interests. Frameworks developed in literature tend to structure manufacturing strategy in such a way that addresses market needs and expectations. As the move towards sustainability becomes highly pronounced, literature in domain manufacturing is developing approaches and initiatives that explore different facets of sustainability. However as this impetus becomes increasingly famous, manufacturing firms are faced with the challenge of integrating sustainability with the classical function of manufacturing, which is to support firms' competitive advantages. Thus, an inclusive approach would constitute a manufacturing strategy that would support not only sustainability but enhance the competitive strategy of a firm. In order to integrate these two objectives it is necessary to take into consideration the different stakeholders' interests as significant drivers towards sustainability. This work explores the significance of these interests when developing a manufacturing strategy using the proposed approach. In the proposed method, an analytic network process handles the complexity of the decision framework, and judgment elicitation during pairwise comparisons is described using linguistic variables with equivalent triangular fuzzy numbers. The proposed approach is useful when handling complexity and uncertainty especially in group decisionmaking. The content of the sustainable manufacturing strategy using a fuzzy analytic process is presented in this paper.