An Indicator Framework Approach on Manufacturing Water Assessment towards Sustainable Water Demand Management

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883

J. Environ. Treat. Tech.

ISSN: 2309-1185

Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com

An Indicator Framework Approach on

Manufacturing Water Assessment towards

Sustainable Water Demand Management

Nurul Sa’dah Bahar , Zainura Zainon Noor , Azmi Aris¹^,², Nurul Ashikeen Binti

1,3*

Kamaruzaman⁴

Faculty of Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Centre of Environmental Sustainability and Water Security, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Faculty of Engineering, School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

National Water Services Commission (SPAN), Cyberjaya, 63000, Selangor, Malaysia

Received: 02/01/2020

Accepted: 19/05/2020

Published: 20/09/2020

Abstract

Population growth, industrialization, urbanization and change of life style have increased global water demand. Although agricultural

water demand accounts as the largest overall user, emerging economics causes industrial and domestic water demand to increase

tremendously especially in developing countries. One sector that contributes to rapid industrial demand is manufacturing sector. Despite

many assessment methods being used in the past, it has been seen that measurement of manufacturing water use performance could only

be done for specific manufacturing factory or specific industries. Due to lack of a holistic framework towards assessment water

performance in any given manufacturing factory, this paper introduces an indicator-framework called Malaysia Manufacturing Industry

Water Benchmarking System (MIWABS). This indicator framework was developed based on relevant sets of indicators arranged under

sustainability pillars criteria. MIWABS uses stakeholder-driven approach whereby the established indicators and Analytic Hierarchy

Process (AHP) assigning weightage were done through workshops and questionnaires. Rubber glove and semiconductor industries were

chosen as demonstration study to validate the indicator-framework. The results highlighted the importance to emphasize on recycling

water in manufacturing facilities. Besides that, manufacturing factories shall also explore other water alternatives such as groundwater

and river to cater for their factory and production needs to reduce the dependency of potable water by public water operator. It is hoped

that MIWABS can give input and policy direction as part of water demand management strategies in Malaysia.

Keywords: Manufacturing water use, Water demand management, Indicator-framework, Sustainability

drinking and sanitation (3). Industrialization does play an

important role in boosting development in economy (4). In low-

and middle-income countries, industrial water demand is about

Introduction¹

.1 Background

Nowadays, sustainable water resource management is an

0%, however, this percentage is significantly different for high

overall concern in the world. With increasing population and

urbanization expansion, the world will face a severe global

water deficit (1) if water demand continues to rise with the

finite water supply. Unavoidably, population increase will have

direct impact to meet the demand in all sectors including

domestic, agricultural and industrial sector (2). Growing water

demand of 55% is projected by 2050. Among all sectors, an

increase of 400% for manufacturing water demand is expected

from 2000 to 2050. Multiple approaches have been used in

assessing manufacturing water use. In those separate studies,

indicators such as water per product, recycling rate and

wastewater generation had been evaluated for optimization.

These indicators are arranged according to sustainability pillar

criteria as shown in Table 1.

GDP countries where industrial water takes up about 60% of

the total water demand. Therefore, since water resources are

shared among sectors, assessment of water use in

manufacturing sector is important. For example in China,

economic transformation tremendously has changed the water

demand proportion (5). The shift of water demand causes more

initiatives to be introduced such as the Three Red Lines to

control water use (6). All previous research had been carried

out to optimize and minimize water use in primary activities

such as process water and cooling water. Besides that, they also

investigated minimization of wastewater generation that can be

harmful to the environment. These approaches used indicators

or drivers that reflect the current condition and helped to

monitor for future trend as well. However, these indicators have

yet to be presented in a holistic way to assess the performance

of manufacturing water use. Thus, this paper aims to introduce

the development of indicator-framework for manufacturing

Focusing within a manufacturing facility, common water

use is for the manufacturing process such as fabricating,

cleaning, cooling, transporting a product, embedded as final

product, cooling system, water treatment plant and also for

Corresponding author: Zainura Zainon Noor, (a) Faculty of Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,

1310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia and (b) Faculty of Engineering, School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi

Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Email: zainurazn@utm.my.

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883

water use called, Malaysia Manufacturing Industry Water

Benchmarking System (MIWABS). This indicator framework

has been developed through collaboration between Universiti

Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and National Water Service

Commission (SPAN).

made based on some standardized manner. Selection of

indicators shall be done according to these criteria (35):

relevant, quantifiable, accessible, timely manner, and long term

oriented.

The measurement of indices is made from time to time that

allows tracking of trends and improvement. Changes of the

multidisciplinary indicators can also be made based on

applicability during time of measurements. Understanding

these trends allow stakeholders to make concise decision for

future betterment. Table 2 shows the example of developed

indicator framework in water resources management. Indicator

framework has been utilized to assess urban water, river basin,

region and country water demand. Juwana et al. (2016) had

developed WJWSI for river basin in Indonesia. Result for

WJWSI gives comparison for the catchments used as a starting

point by water authorities to embark on direction of water

demand management of the said area. Water Poverty Index on

the other hand, indicates water situation based on

multidisciplinary indicators including physical and

socioeconomics aspects.

The index allows countries and communities to be ranked

and it also enables the national and international organisations

to take necessary action on the resources available.

Furthermore, the impact towards the resources and its use can

be assessed by both organisations based on the socio-economic

factors. Studies have shown that indicator framework can

produce a conclusive assessment to deliver overall current and

performance improvement.

Table 1: Indicators for manufacturing water use in previous

researches

Sustainability Indicators

Aspect

Reference

Economic

Manufacturing gross value (7–11)

added

GDP / freshwater use

Shadow price of freshwater

Shadow price of wastewater

GDP per capita

Payback period

Water treatment cost

Environment Recycled water ratio

Water use per unit output

Water recirculation rate

Total water intake

(9,10,12–

32)

Savings in water consumption

Specific water-cooling demand

per product

Process water consumption

Groundwater withdrawal

Water depletion

3 Research Flow

Embodied water in coal use

embodied water in oil use

embodied water in other use

BOD5

The development of MIWABS consists of six (6) steps as

shown in Figure 1. As the scope was defined, the aspect of

research was identified. Horizon scanning of possible

indicators was carried out. Then, these indicators were screened

and filtered through workshop attended by relevant

stakeholders. After that, based on established aspects and

indicators, data collection took place in order to demonstrate

the indicator-framework. Next, normalization of data was done

where Proximity-to-Target method was used. Weightage

assignment was carried out by using AHP method and

questionnaire was distributed to water experts in Malaysia.

Lastly, the aggregation of MIWABS indicators was done to

express the performance of manufacturing factories in term of

score.

COD

Total dissolved solids (TDS)

Suspended Solid

Total nitrogen

Dissolved Oxygen

Total phosphorus

Total iron

Reduction

generation

Temperature

wastewater

•

Stage one — Horizon scanning: The criteria for the

Social

Training

Inefficiency level of execution

of ISO 14000

(18,20,33)

sustainable indicators relevant to manufacturing water demand

was based on sustainability concepts which are environmental,

economic, technological, and societal. These are the common

aspects when it comes to sustainability. In order to establish the

indicators, horizon scanning of existing indicators with respect

to manufacturing water demand was done. Along with the

criteria set, sustainable indicators must be measurable and

relevant to be applied generically in all manufacturing

industries in Malaysia.

Section 2 will explain on the concept of indicator-

framework and examples of indicator-framework that had been

developed in water resources management previously. Then, in

Section 3, the detail methodology for the development of

MIWABS will be explained. Section 4 shows the discussion of

the results. Conclusion and recommendation for future work

are then portrayed in Section 5 and Section 6, respectively.

The Concept of Indicator-Framework

One of the established methods to assess the performance

of water use is by using indicator-framework. It consists of

indicators, aspect and indices (34). An index which is a single

score number is obtained when aggregation of indicators is

Figure 1: Research flow for development of MIWABS

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883

Table 2: Indicator-framework in water demand management

Number of

Scope

Author

Indicator Framework

Aspect

indicators



Time taken to collect domestic

water



Clean sanitation

Water Availability

Access to safe water

(37)

Water Poverty Index (WPI)

Region or country



Life

Environment

Hydrology

Policy

Resource

Ecosystem Health

Infrastructure

Human Health and Well Being

Community Capacity

Resiliency

Quality

Efficiency

Conservation

Water use

Policy and Governance

(

38)

39)

Watershed Sustainability Index (WSI)

Canadian Water Sustainability Index

River Basin

Canada

(

(CWSI)

Sustainable Cities Water Index

SCWI)

50 Cities in the

world

(

40)

36)

(

West Java Water Sustainability Index

WJWSI)

(

River Basin

(

•

Stage two — Stakeholders’ perception for filtration of

assign weightage. This method is widely used in the world to

support individual and group decision making. Basically, the

method uses problem modelling, weights valuation, weights

aggregation and sensitivity analysis to rank the aspects (41).

The AHP questionnaire was designed and distributed to water

experts in Malaysia.

indicators: Based on the possible indicators gathered from the

horizon scanning process, filtration of indicators had been

carried out through a working session with water and

manufacturing stakeholders. Stakeholders consist of

representatives from SPAN, water operators, government

agencies, private agencies, and manufacturing factories.

Thorough discussion among the stakeholders had managed to

identify and establish the sets of indicators that was utilised for

MIWABS.

Horizon Scanning

Aggregation

•

Stage three — Data collection through questionnaires

for manufacturing factories: Based on the established

sustainable indicators, a questionnaire was developed and

distributed to selected manufacturing industries. As a pilot

study, scoping for water intensive manufacturing industry was

based on manufacturing census 2015 that was carried out by the

Department of Statistics Malaysia. Two manufacturing sectors

had been selected for the development of MIWABS namely

rubber glove and semiconductor manufacturing factories.

Weightage

Indicator Filtration

Data Collection

Assignment

Normalization of

Indicators

•

Stage four — Normalization of indicators: The

measurement units for the established indicators were different.

Thus, statistical normalization of raw data was needed before a

weightage can be assigned for each indicator (OECD, 2008).

Proximity-to-Target (PTT) method was chosen to normalize

the data indicators. The concept of this method is illustrated in

Figure 2 and equations for 1 and 2 are stated as well. Based on

the type of indicator, formula to calculate the PTT score is

given as follows:

Figure 2: Proximity-to-Target concept

• Stage six — Aggregation of Indicators:

MIWABS total score was calculated based on aggregation

of the assigned aspect weightage and each indicator score.

Based on the rating system as shown in Table 3, MIWABS

score were categorised into four (4) categories of performance

which are poor, fair, good, and excellent.

Equation 1:

Table 3: Distribution of PTT Score, Star Rating, Colour Code

and Performance.

PTT Type A= [(Target - Minimum) - (Target - Data)] x 100) /

(Target - Minimum)

MIWABS

Score (%)

Rating

Performance

Equation 2:

PTT Type B= [(Maximum - Target) - (Data - Target)] x

00) / (Maximum - Target)

75 ≤ x ≤ 100

50 ≤ x ≤ 74

Excellent

Good

Fair

5 ≤ x ≤ 49

•

Stage five —Weightage Assignment: Analytical

0 ≤ x ≤ 24

Poor

Hierarchy Process (AHP) by Saaty in 1980 was adopted to

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883

resources on literature review in Malaysia or international level

were used. Lastly, the best and the worst performance of the

indicator based on the collected data were used as reference.

Besides that, since there were two (2) pilot manufacturing

industries selected for MIWABS, low benchmark and target

were also established based on each industry to cater for the

different natures of water use in those manufacturing

productions. Discussions had been done with DOSM and

manufacturing factory personnel to establish the target and

benchmark of these indicators. For economic aspect, two (2)

indicators were evaluated which are the percentage of water in

product in terms of cost and industrial wastewater cost. The

first indicator in this aspect is the percentage of water in product

in terms of cost whereby benchmarking from the Department

of Statistics Malaysia was used. For rubber glove

manufacturing, except for Factory 2, most of the factories

scored between 80% and 100%. On the other hand, the range

of PTT score for E1 in semiconductor industry is between 60%

and 100%. Questionnaire feedback shows that only 6 factories

recycle their water. In comparison between manufacturing

sector, semiconductor industry recycles more of their water as

compared to rubber glove manufacturing. The recycle water

comes from the cooling system. As for water per product and

wastewater per product, semiconductor shows more uniform

result.

Result

.1 The MIWABS Indicator Framework

The framework structure to develop MIWABS is as shown

in Figure 3. The total score for MIWABS is reflected on the

total score for all four criteria (economic, environmental, social

and technical). The total score for each aspect depends on the

score of each indicator. This hierarchy system is the key system

to develop the score (42). As a result, a total of nine (9)

indicators under four (4) aspects with readily available data was

produced through the outcomes of the workshop which are

deemed suitable to be implemented and to be used by the

manufacturing factories in Malaysia. The established four (4)

aspects for MIWABS are from sustainability pillars and one

additional criterion was added to suit the manufacturing sector.

Besides that, the MIWABS framework also considers the

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) initiatives before

indicators were screened and selected. Based on these, four

criteria are used for MIWABS framework which are:

economic, environmental, social, and technical.

.2 Normalized Indicators Values

Normalization of data was carried out by using PTT score as

shown in Figure 4. In order to develop the framework

indicator, target and low benchmark were another crucial step

to be included. These values were established based on their

nature with different unit of measurements. The first preference

was to set the target and low benchmark based on the policy

statement made by the Malaysian government. Then, next

Figure 3: MIWABS framework

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883

Table 4: MIWABS Established Indicators and Its Description

Aspect

SDG

Code

Indicator

Unit

Description

of water in product

The annual cost paid to

purchase water over annual

sales of product.

.4, 12.2

in terms of cost

(RM/RM)

The annual operational cost

for wastewater treatment

plant over annual amount of

industrial wastewater

generated.

Economic

Industrial

Wastewater

Treatment Cost

Cost (RM) /

wastewater (m )

The percentage of annual

amount of recycle water over

annual amount of water

intake within the factory.

.3, 12.2

En1

En2

% of recycle water

Environment

The total amount of

wastewater generated to

manufacture a product.

Wastewater per

product

m / product

The total amount water used

to manufacture a product.

En3

Water per product

m / product

The total amount of daily

water use per employee.

m /employee/

.4, 12.2

Employee water use

day

The level of water

Social

conservation effort and

monitoring carried out within

the facility.

Water conservation

effort

.4, 12.2

The percentage of annual

amount of utility water over

annual amount of water

intake within the factory.

% of utility water

% of process water

Technical

The total percentage of

annual amount of water used

for process over annual

amount of water intake

within the factory.

.4,

2.2

This may be contributed since most semiconductor

factories in Malaysia are following the international standards

from their parent company oversea. Result from employee

water use shows higher and more consistent PTT score for

semiconductor industry as compared to rubber glove

manufacturing. As for water conservation effort, the average

for rubber glove manufacturing is 65%, whereas the PPT score

for water conservation in semiconductor manufacturing is 81%.

As for technical aspect, rubber glove factories have put

initiative to look for other alternative water resources such as

groundwater and river. On the other hand, result shows that

semiconductor industry is fully dependent on potable water

intake from public utility operator. PTT score for percentage of

process water in semiconductor manufacturing shows more

consistent result among factories as compared to rubber glove

manufacturing.

4.3 Weightage Assignment

Based on the result, the Consistency Ratio (CR) produced

was 0.001006, which is lower than 0.1 as acceptable (43). With

Random Index (RI) of 0.9, the Consistency Index (CI) was

0.00091. The eigenvector matrix was found to be 0.2961,

0.3862, 0.1621 and 0.1556. The sum of these eigenvector

values was one (1). These eigenvector values were then used as

weightage in this study. The priority weight for C1, C2, C3 and

C4 were 29.6%, 38.6%, 16.2% and 15.6% respectively.

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883

Figure 4: PTT Score for MIWABS Indicators

This means that, environmental indicator is the most

important, which is then followed by economic indicator, social

indicator and lastly, technical indicator. The weight value of

each criterion in this study is summarised in Table 5. The AHP

results show that, water experts put more concern on

environmental aspect of manufacturing water use. This is

indeed relevant as the indicators relate directly to water

minimization and wastewater generation. In states such as

Selangor, Johor and Pulau Pinang where the manufacturing

industries are highly populated, non-domestic water takes up

about 50% of their water consumption. This also leads to huge

amount of wastewater. Without proper treatment,

contamination to river may occur. Then, economic aspect of

manufacturing water use is weighted as second important

among the aspects. Even though the water tariff for

manufacturing is higher from the domestic user, concern of

water operation to supply treated water in Malaysia is

considerably low and not optimum at this moment. Coming in

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883

third is the social aspect which covers the behaviour of

employee water use as well as water conservation effort in

manufacturing water use.

primary parameter for conservation or optimization as

compared to energy or other resources for production. As

agreed, the tariff has not been of any issue and water has yet

been treated as a precious commodity in the manufacturing

production. However, the interruption in water supply is more

of their concern. Looking at the aggregation of nine MIWABS

indicators (Figure 6), it shows that, improvement can be made

in manufacturing factories based on the total percentage of

recycling water (En1) and percentage of utility water in factory

Table 5: Weight Value of Each criterion

Code

Aspect

Weight

Value (%)

29.6%

Relative

Importance

Economic

Indicator

(T1). As mentioned in the water demand management

Environmental

Indicator

38.6%

strategies, it is suggested for water recycling in the

manufacturing sector to be up to 30% (ASM, 2016). Recycling

water can help to minimize water intake as it can be reused for

suitable manufacturing activities. Therefore, support and

comprehensive policy direction on recycling water in

manufacturing sector should be introduced.

Social Indicator

16.2%

15.6%

Technical

Indicator

Employee water use has less significant impact on total

water use in manufacturing. Lastly, technical aspect which

covers source of water for manufacturing water use and

technology efficiency of process activity is put as the last

ranking. To date, no demarcation of water source point for

manufacturing factory has been in place. In short, the results

obtained from the AHP analysis are reasonable and thus

accepted as they demonstrated the real scenario in Malaysia.

The obtained results are further discussed, validated, and

concurred by SPAN.

.4 MIWABS Score

Based on this indicator framework, data were collected

based on 2 pilot manufacturing industries which are rubber

glove and semiconductor manufacturing factories. The result

for MIWABS score for all manufacturing factories are shown

in Figure 5. For semiconductor industry (Factory 10 to Factory

5), the scoring is more uniform as compared to rubber glove

manufacturing (Factory 1 to Factory 9). The score for rubber

glove manufacturing is from 37% to 92%, whereas the score

for semiconductor manufacturing is from 53% to 81%. This

may be contributed by those manufacturing factories that

follow the same practices as their parent international company

overseas. On the other hand, rubber glove manufacturing is

mostly Malaysian companies. Based on the feedback from the

questionnaires, water usage within the factories in the rubber

glove manufacturing varies from one another in terms of water

per product, wastewater per product and employee water use.

Figure 6: Pie Radar Chart for Malaysia Rubber Glove and

Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry

Secondly, manufacturing industry shall reduce their

dependency on potable water supplied by the water utility

company. This can help to reduce the competitiveness of shared

potable water with commercial and domestic sectors. Besides

that, it gives lower change of water interruption that can affect

production. This initiative had been carried out by one of the

rubber glove manufacturing factories where water intake is

Figure 5: MIWABS Score

Discussion

To date, there is no policy or specific guideline on water

00% coming from the river. By setting up their own water

use in manufacturing factories in Malaysia. Through the

observation from questionnaires and interviews feedback from

manufacturing personnel, water use in factory has not been the

treatment plant, the cost to purchase water is much lower than

utilising potable water from the water operator. Few factories

Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques

2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 875-883

have also opted taking up water from groundwater which helps

to reduce potable water intake. By improving these indicators

in manufacturing water use, more effective water demand

management in Malaysia can be achieved. Moreover, it will

support the action plan in line with the Sustainable

Development Goal as follows:

Ethical issue

Authors are aware of, and comply with, best practice in

publication ethics specifically with regard to authorship

(avoidance of guest authorship), dual submission, manipulation

of figures, competing interests and compliance with policies on

research ethics. Authors adhere to publication requirements

that submitted work is original and has not been published

elsewhere in any language.

Table 6: The action plan in line with the Sustainable

Development Goal

SDG Description

Competing interests

By 2030, substantially increase water-use

efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that

would prejudice the impartiality of this scientific work.

withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address

water scarcity and substantially reduce the number

of people suffering from water scarcity.

Authors’ contribution

All authors of this study have a complete contribution for

data collection, data analyses and manuscript writing.

By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit

industries to make them sustainable, with increased

resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of

clean and environmentally sound technologies and

industrial processes, with all countries acting in

accordance with their respective capabilities.

By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and

efficient use of natural resources.

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