Performance obstacles in sustainable manufacturing – model building and validation

Purpose: Manufacturing organization has adopted the concept of sustainability to improve the performance of product and process as well as to focus on environmental issues. Despite technological advancements and awareness, there exist several performance obstacles for the implementation of sustainable manufacturing in an organization. The objective of the current study is to identify the performance obstacles, propose a structural model and validate the proposed model. Design/methodology/approach: Twelve performance obstacles are identified through critical literature review and discussion with field experts. Primary and secondary factor analysis, that is, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), are used for the creation of the structural model, and further, structural equation modeling is used as a validating tool. EFA deals with the categorization of all performance obstacles in four major criteria, and CFA works for proposing a model for a relationship among all obstacles. Findings: A validated structural model is provided through hypothesis acceptance for structural equation modeling. The outcome of this study can be helpful for decision-makers to incorporate sustainable practices in the manufacturing organization. Originality/value: This study has extracted and identified performance obstacles for the implementation of sustainable manufacturing based on critical literature review and discussion with field experts. The study proposes as well as validates the structural equation model.