The Impact of Firm Size in the Formulation of Sustainable Manufacturing Strategy Infrastructural Decisions Under Uncertainty

Abstract

This paper adopts a fuzzy analytic network process approach in identifying the impact of the presence of firm size on the content of the manufacturing strategy infrastructural decisions that integrates the classical manufacturing strategy framework and the notion of sustainability. Linguistic variables with equivalent triangular fuzzy numbers were used to elucidate judgment of elements in pairwise comparison matrices within the context of the analytic network process. Analytic network process effectively handles the complexity of the decision-making problem resulting from the subjectivity and interrelationships inherent among decision components. Domain experts in manufacturing strategy and sustainability were asked to elicit judgment in pairwise comparisons. Results show that the content of the infrastructural decisions of manufacturing strategy remains constant regardless of the presences of firm size component. However, the priority of each decision to the goal which can be translated as the priority of implementation of each policy varies with the presence of firm size.