Validating Green Manufacturing (GM) Framework for Sustainable Development in an Indian Steel Industry

Green manufacturing (GM) is a term used to describe manufacturing practices that do not harm the environment during any part of the manufacturing process. It emphasizes the use of processes that do not pollute the environment or harm consumers, employees, or other members of the community. GM stresses on reducing parts, rationalizing materials, and reusing components, to help make products more efficient to build. This paper presents the details of a case study. It highlights the road map of the company for achieving performance improvement through GM implementation and its impact on organizational performance. It also points out strengths and weaknesses of GM implementation practices and overall performance using developed research instrument. The case study helps in evaluating the company’s GM implementation and overall business performance. To do so, research instrument was administered amongst forty one employees in the companies respectively and their responses were analyzed. Using the data obtained from a survey of industries in India, the identified factors were subjected to appropriate statistical tests to establish reliable and valid model. Statistical computing package SPSS 17.0 for Windows was used for reliability and validity analysis. The validated instrument of GM factors developed here may be used by manufacturing organizations to priorities their management efforts to assess and implement GM. The validated results are in Indian context; however, the instrument developed can be used in global context.


Introduction
Green Manufacturing (GM) is a method for manufacturing that minimizes waste and pollution. It slows the depletion of natural resources as well as lowering the extensive amounts of trash that enter landfills. Its emphasis is on reducing parts, rationalizing materials, and reusing components, to help make products more efficient to build. GM involves not just the use of environmental design of products, use of environmental friendly raw materials, but also eco-friendly packing, distribution, and disposal or reuse after the lifetime of the product. Green manufacturing is a term used to describe manufacturing practices that do not harm the environment during any phase of the manufacturing. It emphasizes the use of processes that do not pollute the environment or harm consumers, employees, or other members of the community. Green manufacturing addresses a number of manufacturing matters, including 4R's(Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Remanufacturing), conservation, waste management, water supply, environmental protection, regulatory compliance, pollution control, and a variety of related issue.

Green Manufacturing Practices Indian scenario
Indian Companies are feeling the pressure to go green, as many of their Western counterparts are building environmental sustainability into their business practices. For example, Wal-Mart, which annually imports over $3 billion in goods from Indian suppliers, recently asked them to adopt green practices or risk losing the retail giant as a customer. For Indian companies, there are other compelling reasons to develop GM practices. As leading companies know, going green, if done right, helps companies bolster their fortunes. Few of the manufacturing firms had ensured to comply with the RoHs directive. Here is a list of the Top Clean Technology / Alternative Energy/ GM practicing Companies in India according to Verdurous India Index.
To achieve real financial benefits, Indian companies, like those elsewhere, need to follow certain key practices. Above all, they must commit to a green philosophy and incorporate GM practices into their product lifecycle and supply chain operations. Ramakrishna (2006) claims that major industries in India focusing on reducing energy consumption, water 50 Validating Green Manufacturing (GM) Framework for Sustainable Development in an Indian Steel Industry consumption, hazardous substances, waste ,emission also Green purchasing network is spreading its wings in India .According to Mukherjee & Kathuria(2006) efforts are taken by leading firms for Prevention of potential hazards to the environment as well as getting ISO 14001 certification. Few of the manufacturing firms had ensured to comply with the RoHs (reduction of hazardous substance) directive.Economic growth plays a crucial role for overall society development. However, economic development and environmental sustainability are not supplementary to each other.

Review of Literature
Critical success factors (CSF's) are the vital input factors that will drive a good GM system.Different authors have attempted to investigate the CSFs in GM with differing purposes and objectives. Critical factors should be interpreted as those circumstances or practices which already exist, or those that need to be developed in ensuring the success of GM implementation. Performance measures are deliverables or output of a GM system. Improving organizational performance is a goal of every organization. Organizational performance is the final result of running a business. It can reveal the effects of doing business, show the competitive capability of the firm in the market place and its financial status. Organizational performance is a good indicator to test the effects of improvement practices and of companies' efforts in pursuing performance measures. An objective of this study is to evaluate the factors which have positive impact on the organizational performance indicators in Indian manufacturing companies. The requirements of GM critical success factors and performance measures proposed by various authors are briefly described below.
According to Gutowski et al. (2005) [6] Motivating factors for GM are regulatory mandates, economic advantage, reduced waste treatment and disposal costs, conservation of energy, water, materials, product take-back system, supply chain requirements, corporate image, and employee satisfaction.
Deanna J. Richards(1994) [3] in stresses on various CSFs of environmental conscious manufacturing viz. meeting customers needs, environmental tradeoffs, reuse, recycle LCA, green design, disposal etc.
According to Richard Florida et.al (2000) [5] Factors play a key role in the adoption of environmental innovations, referred to as GM practices, organizational resources, organizational innovativeness, and organizational monitoring systems .The research also explored the interplay of organizational factors and spatial or geographic factors (such as proximity to customers and suppliers) in the adoption of ECM practices.
Devashish Pujari (2003) [12] includes environmental benchmarking and measurement, effective groundwork, cross-functional coordination, environmental database, supplier involvement, environmental policy/ legitimation. Three other factors emerging with relatively low variance were top management support and involvement, product experimentation, and environmental coordinator. M.A.Rehman and R.L. Shrivastava(2011) [10] identified nineteen measures of GM includes Top management commitment, Need and role of employee team responsible for GM ,Green process/practices ,Green design ,Green purchasing/marketing ,Green packaging, Green transportation ,Green supply chain management GSCM ,Reverse logistic ,Reduce /remanufacture/recycle (3R) etc.
Jaideep Motwani (2001) [11] identified seven critical factors and more than 45 performance measures of TQM. Including Top management commitment; quality measurement and benchmarking; process management, product design, employee training and empowerment, supplier quality management, customer involvement and satisfaction.
Pius Achanga, et.al(2006) [14] identified Several critical factors that determine the success of implementing the concept of lean manufacturing within SMEs that includes leadership, management, finance organisational culture and skills and expertise.
Jiju According to Lele .S (2009) [9] there are many drivers which are expanding the boundaries for green manufacturing. A growing number of executives today feel that going green will help them to compete more effectively in the marketplace in the long term. In summary the major drivers can be grouped into three key areas competitiveness, corporate social responsibility, and legislation.
According to Gutowski et al. (2005) [6] Motivating factors for GM are regulatory mandates, economic advantage, reduced waste treatment and disposal costs, conservation of energy, water, materials, product take-back system, supply chain requirements, corporate image, and employee satisfaction. Digalwar  Using a thorough synthesis of the Green manufacturing literature, twelve critical success factors and six performance measures of Green manufacturing practices and their variables have been developed. Using the data obtained from a survey of manufacturing industries in India, the identified factors were subjected to appropriate statistical tests to establish reliable and valid GM Model. Statistical computing package SPSS 17.0 for Windows was used for reliability and validity analysis.

GM Framework
Depending upon the critical success factors and performance measure a validated instrument of GM factors is developed .Based on the information provided by the respondent and the analysis of survey data about GM implementation for manufacturing companies in India, a GM frame work is developed. Statistical methods such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis and hypotheses testing were used in the analysis. Table1 shows the strong and weak relationship between the various GM implementation factors and the Performance measures.

Objective of Case Study
To verify whether the relationship established is valid through the responses from the industries. The major aim of the case study is to provide a practical example of performance improvement of the Indian manufacturing company that has implemented GM initiative. One of the objectives of case study was to assess the GM implementation practices and performance improvement of the organization. The study was conducted in company that has already implemented this initiative. The case study helps in evaluating the company's GM implementation and overall business performance.

Brief about the Organisation
The case study was carried out at the downstream steel products manufacturing and servicing facility of JSW ISPAT Steel limited located at Kalmeshwar, Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra, India houses the state of the art technology in the field of cold rolling, galvanizing, color coating, galvalume and pipe and tube. Ispat Industries Limited (IIL) is one of the leading integrated steel makers and the largest private sector producer of hot rolled coils in India. Table 2 shows the detail of capacity of company. In the company's endeavor to be a world-class player, it worked hard to merit the QS: 9000 (Quality System) and ISO:14000 (Environment Management System) certifications

Performance Improvement Programs Pursued by the Company (GM In Company)
The Company has always striven to be responsible and sensitive to ecological and environmental matters. This is ensured by protecting, conserving and restoring all natural resources, often far beyond what is mandated by government and other institutional policies. The Company is committed to complying in full measure with all regulations relating to the preservation of the environment around its operations. By constantly upgrading technologies and by applying the best of sustainable processes and practices, the Company endeavors to provide environmental issues the priority they deserve.  The Company is dedicated to constantly improving its performance on prevention of pollution, proper use of natural resources and minimization of any hazardous impact stemming from production, development, use and disposal of any of its products and services.  • Green or energy efficient Steel, wider range particularly Martensitic stainless steel etc, Product Re-engineering and Brand development.
• In-house adaptation of ultra fast cooling at beginning of Lamellar cooling to produce acicular ferrite, high work hardenable steels for Auto Sector.
• Coordination with JSW R&D, other Research Institutes and technical Universities in India and abroad.
• New product and market development (Green or energy efficient Steel, wider range products, particularly, Martensitic Stainless Steel, APIX70 > 12 mm, Dual Phase, IF steel etc),Product re-engineering and Brand development.
• Process re-engineering for more lean, efficient and effective process.
• Reduction in energy consumption at C.R. Slitter-3 by replacing DC motors and Drives with AC Motors and VVF Drives.
• Maintaining Entry Tension Reel and Delivery Tension Reel Field Economy at minimum level in 6 Hi Cold Rolling Mill to achieve reduction in power consumption.
• Installation of Energy Saver to optimise lighting power consumption in CRM Plant and Street Lighting.
• Replacement of Halogen lamps by Metal Halide to save power at all inspection points in CRM.
• Installation of VVF Drive for three nos. of Cranes.
• Increase transparent roofing sheets in CGL-1 and its Finishing Lines to use day lighting.
• Installation of capacitor bank at HT side to maintain unity power factor

Evaluation of GM Implementation and Organizational Performance
In order to evaluate the company"s GM implementation practices and organizational performance, the developed research instrument was used. Based on the evaluation, the current situations of the company"s GM implementation and overall performance were obtained. Subsequent sections present the evaluation results, which were translated into marks according to the scoring methods. It also highlights the extent of relationship ( little, moderate, large) between various GM implementation practices and overall performance.

Validation of the Research Instrument
In order to validate the developed model the structured instrument were given to 41 members of the organization. They were requested to complete the instrument in the context of their organization. A workshop to explain the interpretation of the instrument items and the meaning of 'GM' Implementation (Performance) Model' was held.
The developed research instrument can be used by 54 Validating Green Manufacturing (GM) Framework for Sustainable Development in an Indian Steel Industry companies practicing GM approach. It can be used to measure the degree of emphasis of GM implementation and its impact on organizational performance. The research instrument was found to be reliable. It was necessary to validate the research instrument through a case study. The instrument was distributed to forty one employees of the company practicing combined GM approach with prior permission. The responses were analyzed, mean of each item was estimated and items were grouped as respective factors.
Further grand mean of all six factors was obtained. The mean of the responses were proportionally marked in consultation with the experts as shown in Table 11. The number "1" means that the company is having Not at all relationship between the implementation factor and the performance measure or it means that the company is extremely weak in this practice, while the "8"indicates that the relationship between the implementation factor and the performance measure is To a very large extent or extremely strong. Similarly for assessing impact of GM on organizational performance the number "1" means Not at all improvement, while the "8" indicates improvement to a very large extent in performance measures of the company. During the process of assessment, the strengths and weaknesses of items of the respective factors were pointed out. Marks above and below "4" indicate strong and weak items respectively. If the company is neither strong nor weak in particular item, it is indicated as "Average" or to a moderate extent. Strong and average terms are just a relative sense compared with the weak term. Based on total marks scored by implementation factors and performance parameters, the overall grading criterion was decided as shown in Table 10.4. Total marks achieved are indicated as X.  Total marks range Grading 80 % < X < 90 % A 70 % < X < 80 % B 60 % < X < 70 % C 50 % < X < 60 % D X < 50 % E E Table 11 to Table 22 illustrates the detailed analysis of the measure the degree of emphasis of GM implementation. It highlights grand mean, corresponding marks and strengths and weaknesses of addressed items of the factors from research instrument.   Based on above analysis, overall grade of the company was estimated as follows. Numerical weightage assigned to each factor/performance parameter = 8 marks Number of factors = 12 Maximum marks (12*8) = 96 Total marks achieved = 81 % marks achieved = 84.37 % Overall grade = A The overall grade achieved as per grading criteria is A. Thus by using the developed research instrument the degree of emphasis of GM implementation and its impact on organizational performance was measured. Through the assessment of the company's GM practice and overall business performance, most of the established relationship as per the derived model between the implementation factors and the performance measures of the company come to be large to very large extent. Relationship such as organizational capabilities leads to Improvement in stakeholders enrichment is identified as moderate relationship. Whereas Green Design Initiatives Leads to Improvement in Stakeholders enrichment comes to be very little extent relationship. Lower marked practices (e.g. lower than or equal to 4) should be given more attention by the company. These weaknesses could be used as improvement possibilities for further improving the company's GM implementation. Thus the developed research instrument is validated and it can be used by companies practicing GM approach.

Validation of GM Implementation (Performance) Model (Mean and F value of ANOVA)
The collected data was analyzed and one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is carried out to identify the difference between the perceptions of various level of management and mean factor of GM factors(Independent and dependent). The various level of management is classified as Sr.Manager /Manager/Sr officer, Asst./Deputy/officer/engg, Jr.Manager/officer and Technician/Supervisor/trainee. The mean factor score of the factors extracted from the GM Independent and dependent factors are tested to identify whether it differs from various level of management or not .The descriptive statistics are shown in table 24.
From the

Impact of GM Implementation on Organizational Performance
The data of the company's overall business performance could be used as input for formulating an effective improvement plan. Therefore, evaluating overall business performance was also an important part of GM implementation. In fact, this performance reflected the effects of the company's GM implementation. For assessing the impact of GM practices on the organizational performance the performance parameters were compared for last three years and discussed in further sections. For measuring strategic business performance, the addressed areas are listed in the first column. The results are listed in the second to fourth columns. The strengths and weaknesses are listed in the fifth column (Table 12, Table 23).

Overall Growth of the Company Due to GM Practice
The company regularly measured its annual sales, capacity utilization, market share and exports. The indices of these indicators between 2010-11 and 2008-09 are listed in Table 24. The annual sales of the company have increased by 22 % over the years. Similarly capacity utilization and market share have also increased. There is incredible increase in export of the company. This indicates the positive effect of the company's GM implementation. Productivity is one of the key indicators of organizational performance. The productivity target (in terms of sales) fixed by the company and actually achieved in the particular year are shown in Table 24 for past three years. In this company production is stated in terms of sales amount. It also represents year wise sales growth of the company which indicates improvement in productivity over the years.
In spite of these adverse factors company has initiated various efforts to reduce the cost of production. In this company various cost reduction measures were adopted. The measures are: • usage of alternate grades of raw material, successful in-house commissioning of natural gas injection in blast furnace and lower usage of fluxes • Installation of Acid Regeneration Plant (ARP) leds to Recycling of waste • ARP byproduct (iron oxide ) sales • Zero Liquid Discharge Plant (ZLDP) recovers 100% water waste •(ZLDP) leds to oil recovery • Reuse of water in boiler • Up-gradation of existing Vapor Absorption Machine and further utilization of chilled water in AC s to reduce power consumption.
• Carbon foot print measurement study being conducted to further Carbon reduction opportunities and identification of CDM projects and develop carbon reduction strategy and set emission reduction targets.
• Installation of Magna drive/ coupling.
• Installation of solar panels in building roof tops.
• Reduction in energy consumption at C.R. Slitter-3 by replacing DC motors and Drives with AC Motors and VVF Drives.
• Maintaining Entry Tension Reel and Delivery Tension Reel Field Economy at minimum level in 6 Hi Cold

Conclusion
The developed research instrument has been validated. It can be used by other manufacturing companies practicing GM initiatives. The case study highlights the weak areas which can be used as possibilities for the company to improve its GM implementation and overall business performance. However, it should be noted that even its strong areas are not at all perfect as indicated by marks scored by respective items; they still have room for improvement. Strong and average areas are just a relative sense compared with the company's weak areas, though weak areas should receive more attention. The weak areas of the company's GM implementation can be used by the company to formulate improvement plans. The various performance indicators show remarkable improvement over the years. The company has achieved both tangible and intangible benefits by practicing this approach. The case study shows that GM approach can be used to benchmark company's continuous improvement, self-assess their quality improvement efforts and measure their progress over time. Through this, company can quickly identify which areas urgently need improvement. Thus, resources can be allocated more wisely.
The results obtained from the implementation of GM initiative were encouraging for the organizations, and also substantiated the model. The organizations also benefited through the improvement in various areas and because of GM implementation the organizations have continuously improved their performances. In the process the organizations received appreciations from their customers and also gained significant benefits through GM implementation. The concerns also certified that 'The GM Implementation (Performance) Model' developed by the researcher through his research study served as a useful guidance in successfully implementing GM practices in their organizations and in achieving better organizational performance.