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Factors of manufacturing sustainability in the papermaking industry were identified and ranked using qualitative analysis and nonparametric tests. Based on a review of the literature on sustainable development and production, seven main factors of economic, environmental, technological, social, human, material and product, and regulations were identified to underpin the manufacturing sustainability in the papermaking industry, as well as some sub-factors. Then, a self-designed questionnaire was developed to take a poll among papermaking managers and experts regarding the effectiveness of the factors and sub-factors in manufacturing sustainability and their status. The factors affecting manufacturing sustainability in the papermaking industry were confirmed by the standard and significance coefficients in the structural equations and the predictive criterion. The cross-validated redundancy index showed that the data were valid enough for prediction. The research factors were ranked by the ordinal average affecting sustainability, current status, and distance to sustainability. The materials and product, environmental, technological, and economic factors had the greatest influence on manufacturing sustainability, and the regulation and human factors had the highest distance to sustainability. To achieve manufacturing sustainability in the papermaking industry, regulations and human factors need to be further studied. Their improvement has potential to achieve manufacturing sustainability.
Nematabad et al. (Tue,) studied this question.