Ranking of factors that underlie the drivers of sustainable manufacturing based on their variation in a sample of UK manufacturing plants

The trend towards environmental sustainability has encouraged research to explore this new area in manufacturing. Part of the research effort is directed at identifying the drivers of this new development to understand how it is impacting traditional manufacturing. Government regulations, customer demand, and cost savings are amongst many drivers that have been identified. Research so far, however, represents merely the tip of the iceberg of a very complex phenomenon. A deeper understanding of the factors affecting these drivers is lacking. This study, therefore, aims to identify factors that support some sustainability drivers. This study has identified four key drivers and the factors that underlie them. For example, customer demand is a driver that was found to be influenced by underling factors such as the bargaining power of customers and the importance of environmentally-friendly products to win orders. Ten underlying factors are described and then analysed by conducting statistical tests that show their variation in a sample of manufacturing companies. Based on the principle that the control of variation could lead to potential improvements, these factors are ranked according to their variation in the sample. The novelty of this study is its attempt to provide deeper knowledge of what influence the strength of sustainability drivers by shedding light on the factors that underlie them. The approach used to rank the factors based on their variation is also unique and has the potential to be widely used to identify opportunities for improvements in other areas.