An Activity Based Strategic Justification Methodology for ECM Technology

Adrien Presley and Joseph Sarkis

The International Journal of Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacturing, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 5-17, 1994

Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing (ECM) technology strategically impacts the operations of an organization. Justification of these technologies is often difficult due to the failure of traditional justification techniques to consider intangible and unquantifiable measures along with quantifiable costs and benefits. This paper presents a pervasive methodology focusing on the justification of strategic enterprise technologies. The methodology is based on an activity based management approach. A brief background and organizational decision making context for which this methodology is an integral part are presented. The paper concludes with an illustrative example to demonstrate how the methodology can effectively justify ECM technology from an explicit life cycle and total cost analysis approach.