Benchmarking the green performance of global manufacturing: An application of DEA-bad output model

The issues of scarcity of natural resources and environmental depletion are being paid attention to by customers, organizations, governments and communities worldwide. Businesses are facing the challenge to leverage the environment and economic performance for sustainable operations owing to stringent regulations and customer's high awareness of environmental protection. The value-added process for both good and undesirable output is inevitable from the manufacturing process. We study a global chemical company with multiple manufacturing sites and propose that a DEA bad output model for decision making be used by site managers, business unit managers and corporate managers. The inputs covered are energy, water consumption and man-hours; undesirable bad outputs are solid waste, carbon dioxide, air emission and illness and injury rate; and the good output is production volume for performance measurement of green manufacturing. It can aid the business in benchmarking the green manufacturing at multiple sites for measuring, monitoring and driving continuous improvement at a global chemical company.