A VIKOR-BASED APPROACH FOR DETERGENT SELECTION PROBLEM FROM SUSTAINABILITY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The sustainability concept is getting more important due to the limited world carrying capacity and natural resources with increasing population around the world. As one of the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, home cleaning has different impacts on both environment and health. In this context, using detergents reveal a research area because, they consist many ingredients that are worth to consider for sustainability and innovation. In daily life, detergents are consumed almost in every type of household activity; therefore, there is an increasing amount of detergent consumption. Even type of consumed detergent differs in terms of different regions, the most consumed type is defined as powder detergents according to European statistics. Such real-life cases complicate the decision-making process even more difficult because, they combine both qualitative and quantitative issues. In such cases, multi-criteria decision-making methods deal with uncertainties exist and contradicted criteria. Thus, the aim of the application is to detect the most appropriate detergent according to the sustainability dimensions by Vikor Method. First of all, five most purchased powder detergents were determined from top FMCG companies’ annual reports and some related articles in literature. Secondly, algorithm of the Vikor Method was coded on MATLAB R2018a software and then, gathered data was integrated to evaluate the identified powder detergent options under sustainability metrics. As a result of this study, the most effective criteria are active ingredient and foam height from customer perspective without considering market share and retail price per net weight. Companies should focus on reducing negative effects of active ingredients while satisfying customer expectations and this ensures the preferability of a powder detergent from sustainability perspective.

Keywords

• Detergents
• Multi-criteria Decision Making
• Sustainability
• Vikor Method

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