Development of Interpretive Structural Modeling: An Approach for Fertilizer Industries

Volume 7 Issue 2 February - April 2017

Research Paper

Development of Interpretive Structural Modeling: An Approach for Fertilizer Industries

Manjeet Singh*, Suman Kant**, Jawalkar C. S. ***

*Research Scholar, Department of Production and Industrial Engineering , PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, India.

**-*** Assistant Professor, Department of Production and Industrial Engineering,PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh, India.

Singh, M., Kant, S., and Jawalkar, C. S. (2017). Development of Interpretive Structural Modeling: An Approach for Fertilizer Industries. i-manager’s Journal on Mechanical Engineering, 7(2), 35-43. https://doi.org/10.26634/jme.7.2.13437

Abstract

India is a large country and its agricultural production is very crucial to guarantee its people and their livelihood. As an important productive material in agriculture, fertilizer plays a significant role in ascertaining its sustainable development and food safety. Exposure to industrial ethics and increased sense of social responsibility on part of environmental concerns has necessitated fertilizer industries around the globe to recognize and evolve environment friendly business practices. Fertilizer Industry has been identified as one of the largest polluting industries, owing to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions caused by burning of fossil fuels in boiler and chemicals used in the manufacturing of fertilizer. The pollution is caused by manufacturing of fertilizer and manifests all through its Supply Chain (SC) in the form of losses, leading to additional need of fertilizer for the agriculture sector to ensure food safety and hence more environmental degradation occurs. In this paper, an attempt has been made to formulate a model of drivers that have a bearing on the implementation of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) by making use of Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) with special reference to fertilizer industries.

Impact of production, transportation, distribution, and environmental/legal concerns on to the green supply chain management effectiveness have been examined in this paper. Literature review identifies the main categories of the above mentioned variables which are considered as an important indicator of the supply chain management affecting business processes to a large context. Data is gathered through questionnaire distributed to key players in fertilizer sector/industries in Punjab, which were further analyzed statistically. GSCM finds extensive applications in fertilizer Industry and has the potential to deliver cleaner fertilizer, coupled with economic gains in the practicing organizations.