Environmental factors in the manufacturing process and its role in the sustainable product life cycle: a thematic analysis of Indian manufacturing sustainability reports

Manufacturing industries are beginning to realise the negative impact of ignoring environmental factors during the manufacturing process. Every product has a life cycle which starts from extraction and utilisation of raw material, production and uses to final disposal of a product. Incorporating environmental factors during the manufacturing (production, assembly and testing) stage of the product life cycle leads to sustainable manufacturing. It leads to the improvement and development of a sustainable product life cycle approach. The study's main aim is to identify and explore the significant environmental factors with the impact to improve sustainable product life during product manufacturing. The conducted research helps manufacturing managers to understand various issues related to environmental aspects of the product and how they can be used gainfully to improve the sustainable product life cycle for other products (B2B). This further helps the company to benchmark itself with other companies in its public domain.