Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process Techniques to Streamlined Life-Cycle Analysis of Two Anodizing Processes

New approaches and tools are needed to enable engineers to assess and deal with the environmental attributes of manufacturing processes. A special concern of adding environmental attributes to products and processes is dealing with the tradeoffs associated with those attributes. The paper demonstrates the utility of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) when applied to the environmental streamlined life-cycle assessment (SLCA) of two manufacturing processes (chromic acid and boric/sulfuric acid anodizing). Two methods are detailed in the paper and the accompanying Supporting Information. The application of AHP to abridged matrix-based tools adds value to a SLCA approach by providing logical consistency to valuing the matrix cells and increasing the speed of analysis. AHP also provides a built-in check on consistency that enables the user to monitor the various comparison matrixes for logical consistency in assigning numbers to the cells of the matrixes.