Development of Key Performance Measures for Sustainable Manufacturing in Global SMEs

Abstract

Sustainable manufacturing strives to produces the goods by minimizing negative environmental impact and reducing the resource consumptions. It also strives for safety of employee and community while maintaining an affordable cost. This study focuses on the development of a set of measures and metrics for assessing sustainability performance of manufacturing SMEs. In this study, various literatures on sustainable manufacturing performance measurement, green manufacturing, traditional manufacturing performance measurement and performance measurements in manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are reviewed. Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is considered as framework in order to establish the relevant measures in an effective and comprehensive manner. The measures for performance measurements are classified in the three aspects of TBL known as economic, environmental and social. Therefore, 6 measures with 26 indicators, 8 measures with 31 indicators and 3 measures with 23 indicators were identified for economic, environmental and social aspects respectively. To establish the importance and applicability of developed measures, a survey will be conducted among the experts from academics and industries. Using survey results, a sustainability performance measurement model will be developed and presented.