Article on Barriers - faculty.ait.ac.th - Asian Institute of Technology

makers were invited as
respondents to the questionnaires.
About 40-50% of the total
respondents came from the
industry, 30-40% from the technical
group while 20-30% came from the
policy making group.
Assigning Weights to Barriers
After collecting all the
questionnaires, weights were
assigned to the barriers through the
use of the Analytic Hierarchy
Process (AHP). AHP is a powerful
and flexible decision making
process to help people set priorities
and make the best decision when
both qualitative and quantitative
aspects of a decision need to be
considered.
AHP engages decision makers
in breaking down a decision into
smaller parts, proceeding from the
goal to criteria to subcriteria down
to the alternative courses of action.
Decision-makers then make simple
pair-wise comparison judgments
throughout the hierarchy to arrive at
overall priorities for the alternatives.
Ranking and Prioritization of
Barriers
After assigning weights to each
barrier, they were ranked and
prioritized according to the highest
assigned weight. This can be done
on the four major categories of
barriers as well as on the subcategories
for each major category.
As an aid to analysis, all subcategories
were compared by
ranking and prioritizing them
regardless of their major category.
RESULTS OF THE BARRIER
STUDY
The survey was done separately
for the metalcasting and ceramics
industries. Results of the survey
are presented below.
4
THE ENERGY MANAGER
Metalcasting Industry
Results of the survey showed
that among the major barriers in the
promotion of E3STs in the
Metalcasting Industry, Financial and
Economic Barriers got the highest
point of 34.32, followed by
Technical and Information Barriers
and followed closely by Managerial
and Organizational barriers and
Policy and Market barriers as
shown in Figure 2.
T&I
22.84%
P&M
21.12%
Fig. 2. Metalcasting Industry
Comparing all of the 20 specific
barriers as shown on Table 1, it can
be observed that the first 4 top
ranking barriers all belong under
the Financial and Economic
Barriers. These include high initial
capital cost of E3ST, difficulty in
accessing financing, increased cost
of production due to E3ST projects,
and poor financial gain/return of
E3STs.
Ceramics Industry
M&O
21.72%
F&E
34.32%
Results of the survey showed
that among the major barriers in the
promotion of E3STs in the
Ceramics Industry, Financial and
Economic Barriers also got the
highest point of 31.20 as shown in
Figure 3. Unlike in the Metalcasting
Industry, the second top ranking
barrier are the Managerial and
Organization Barriers, followed by
the Technical and Information
Barriers. The Policy and Market
Barriers ranked last.
Comparing all of the 20 specific
barriers as shown on Table 2, it can
be observed that the first 2 top
ranking barriers belong under the
Financial and Economic Barriers
and the second 2 top ranking
barriers belong under the
Managerial and Organizational
Barriers.
T&I
23.40%
P&M
20.80%
Fig. 3. Ceramics Industry
DISCUSSION
Volume XXII Issue No. 2 April — June 2004
M&O
24.60%
F&E
31.20%
Interpretation of Top Ranking
Specific Barriers
The top 2 ranking specific
barriers for both the metalcasting
and ceramics industries are high
initial capital cost of E3ST and
difficulty in accessing financing.
Replacing worn-out equipment with
energy efficient and
environmentally sound technologies
is often accompanied by high initial
investment cost. Most often than
not, SMIs do not have the
investment or the capital to procure
such technologies.
In the Philippine context,
entrepreneurs or industrial decision
makers do not easily invest in the
development or application of E3ST
because of high investment cost
and the lack of confidence that a
certain market is available.
Investment in E3ST, like any
investment project is expected to be
made only if worth more than they
"cost" at present.
Even if the installation of E3ST
has been proven to be
economically feasible, SMIs
encounters difficulty in accessing