Corporate optimal production planning with varying environmental costs: A grey compromise programming approach

Corporate environmental and resources management has become more strategically oriented when many pollution charges, environmental taxes, and resources conservation fees have been gradually imposing to the industry. The need for explicit consideration and incorporation of varying environmental costs within production-planning program is becoming critical to corporate management. This paper attempts to assess an optimal production-planning program in response to varying environmental costs in an uncertain environment. The optimal production strategy concerning numerous screening of possible production alternatives of dyeing cloth in a textile-dyeing firm in terms of market demand, resources availability, and impact of environmental costs is treated as an integral part of the multi-criteria decision-making framework based on the grey compromise programming approach. It covers not only the regular part of production costs and the direct income from product sales but also the emission/effluent charges and water resource fees reflecting part of the goals for internalization of external cost in a sustainable society. In particular, all the crucial variables in the model are addressed by interval expressions, the same as they are frequently applied in the grey systems theory, in support of a vital uncertainty assessment, which is much better suited for this particular study than other approaches. Research results demonstrate the applicability and significance of such an approach based on a case study. Industry looking for the competitive advantage of environmental management must be aware of the potential benefits from such an integrated production -planning program once the trend of increasing pollution charges, environmental taxes, and resources conservation fees remains. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.