Identifying Critical Factors In The Eco-efficiency Of Remanufacturing Based On The Fuzzy DANP Method

Remanufacturing can bring considerable economic and environmental benefits such as cost saving, conservation of energy and resources, and reduction of emissions. With the increasing awareness of ecological civilization, remanufacturing gradually becomes the research priority. Most studies concentrate on the analysis of the processes, influencing factors, or the evaluation of the economic and environmental performance in remanufacturing, while little effort has been devote d to investigating the critical factors influencing the eco-efficiency of remanufacturing.Considering the current development of the remanufacturing industry in China, this paper proposes a set of factors from the perspectives of the internal and external factors, the economic and environmental benefits. Then a fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory(DEMATEL) method is utilized to establish relation matrixes reflecting the interdependent relationships among these factors, by which the effects of each factor on remanufacturing eco-efficiency are quantified and the critical factors that make more contribution are identified through the causal relationship.In addition, the fuzzy DEMATEL method is incorporated into ANP(Analytic Network Process) to construct the un-weighted and weighted matrixes and to calculate the relative weight of factors by limit matrix, by which the crucial factors of remanufacturing eco-efficiency are determined. Through combination of different methods, the contributions of factors on remanufacturing eco-efficiency are quantified by the causal relationship among factors and the relative weights of factors, thus identifying the critical factors from various aspects, determining the directions to improve the remanufacturing eco-efficiency, and clarifying which factors will achieve more obvious effect once changed. The fuzzy DANP not only avoids the limitation of one single method, but also further verifies the results obtained by fuzzy DEMATEL, which makes the results more scientific and rigorous.Research on remanufacturing eco-efficiency will promote the development of sustainable manufacturing and the realization of circular economy. It also can provide theoretical supports for the government to make appropriate policies for guiding the remanufacturing practices and to improve the eco-efficiency of remanufacturing.