A DEMATEL approach for evaluating barriers for sustainable end-of-life practices

Abstract

Purpose

Sustainable end-of-life (Sus-EoL) practices can be achieved through manufacturing of sustainable products, and recovery and recycling after the use phase. To achieve Sus-EoL, the manufacturing organizations should handle their products after their EoL. The recovery of used products is achieved through the design of the collection location. However, the first step is to understand and identify the barriers (e.g. lack of awareness among people, lack of technology, etc.) which prevent the implementation of Sus-EoL practices. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is about the 18 barriers responsible for the poor success of Sus-EoL practices of used plastic parts. By applying the DEMATEL method and by incorporating experts’ knowledge, a prominence and causal relationship diagram was developed through which the influential strength among barriers was studied.

Findings

The α value is computed as 0.068, and the values lower than α were eliminated to obtain the digraph. Poor curbside pick is identified as the most dominant barrier in implementation of Sus-EoL practices in plastic parts with an influential score of 3.96.

Research limitations/implications

The research is conducted in the Indian scenario which could be extended to global context by selecting the suitable barriers.

Practical implications

The results from the study can be used by the managers of organizations to enhance the possibility of Sus-EoL practices by incorporating suitable strategies which is the significant contribution of this study.

Originality/value

In the past, few authors discussed about the barriers of Sus-EoL practices; however, the analysis of complex interrelationship does not exist. Thus, the global and group interrelationship has been studied which is expected to pave way for future research in the direction of elimination of barriers and so on.

Citation

K., S., R., J., K.E.K., V. and Ravi, P. (2018), "A DEMATEL approach for evaluating barriers for sustainable end-of-life practices", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 29 No. 6, pp. 1065-1091. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-08-2017-0164