Analytic Hierarchy Process-Based Analysis to Determine the Barriers to Implementing a Material Efficiency Strategy: Electrical and Electronics’ Companies in the Malaysian Context

Abstract

Abstract:Material efficiency is one of the most important strategies for helping manufacturing companies achieve sustainability in their production activities. However, there are many barriers to the implementation of material efficiency strategies in the manufacturing processes and overall business operations. The aim of this study is to identify and evaluate the barriers faced by Electrical and Electronics (E&E) manufacturing companies in Malaysia in implementing material efficiency strategies. A mixed-mode research method was employed to collect data from these companies. Semi-structured interviews were used to identify the barriers faced by the Malaysian Electrical and Electronics (E&E) industry, while an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) survey was utilized to determine the importance of each barrier. Seven companies participated in the semi-structured interviews, and 18 companies took part in the AHP survey. Nine barriers were generated from analysis of the interviews, and were then ranked by priority using the AHP method. These important findings could be used as a guide for E&E companies in managing or overcoming barriers during the implementation of material efficiency strategies and other sustainable manufacturing activities.

Becoming Carbon Neutral in Costa Rica to Be More Sustainable: An AHP Approach

“…On the environmental side, the respondents consider that sub-criterion S 1 , related to materials and energy use reductions during the production and distribution processes is slightly more important than S 2 , which refers to reducing the amount and damage of emissions generated by the company (relative weights 0.52 vs. 0.48). The same or similar motivations were identified in previous studies applied to European [16,21,35,36], Asian [13][14][15][17][18][19]21,38], and American [36,37] companies.…”

Resources Sustainability through Material Efficiency Strategies: An Insight Study of Electrical and Electronic Companies

“…Material efficiency can be an effective strategy to enhance sustainable raw material utilization in order to reduce the environmental impacts and fulfilment of the requirements of the circular economy [12,13,15,[19][20][21][22][23][24]. In the manufacturing industry, material efficiency is defined as the practices and strategies to enhance the usability of raw materials without compromising the original functions and purpose of a product [21].…”

A New Approach Using AHP to Generate Landslide Susceptibility Maps in the Chen-Yu-Lan Watershed, Taiwan

“…AHP provides an accurate framework for structuring a problem that needs to be resolved. It has a special application in group decision-making, and is used around the world in many critical contexts, such as government, business, industry, healthcare, education, and even disaster planning [19,25,26,27,28,29]. Although commonly used, the AHP often has limitations because of the inability to incorporate uncertainties and inherent inaccuracies in the data, which are related to the mapping between the perceptions and judgment of the decision maker and the precise numbers used in the AHP model.…”

“…After decomposing an unstructured situation into small parts and building a hierarchy, it is important to establish pairwise comparative analysis of the importance of various indicators in decision making. In most previous AHP studies, the authors made these pairwise comparisons based on a synthesis of expert opinions or experiences [19,23,25,26,27,28]. However, in this study, we assign numerical values for subjective comparisons of the importance of pairwise comparisons by comparing the correlation between landslide area and distribution area of elements, using bivariate analysis and correlation analysis statistics.…”