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An analytical framework for social life cycle impact assessment—part 2: case study of labor impacts in an IC packaging company

  • SOCIETAL LCA
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The pressure on brand firms in the electronics industry to improve the labor conditions of their workers in their global production networks is increasing. Given the significance of mitigating the impacts of production on labor, this study used the new development method of social life cycle impact assessment (SLCIA) for conducting labor impact assessment. An illustrative example in an integrated circuit (IC) packaging company is presented to demonstrate the assessment of the impacts and the identification of the potential for improvement of labor practices among three factories.

Methods

SLCIA method was proposed based on the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines that were reviewed in our previous work, Part 1 (in a previous article): Methodology. The proposed method was used to assess the impacts of operations on labor in the three factories of an IC packaging company. Nineteen indicators of labor–stakeholders were used to collect data from factories and organizations in 2012. The obtained values from these three factories were translated into social impact scores that ranged from 1 to 5. The score of each indicator was multiplied by the weights of each indicator, and a final score of labor situations was generated to identify the hotspots of labor impacts and to identify the factory with better labor performance.

Results and discussion

The main goal of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed SLCIA method in assessing the labor impacts in the electronics industry. Among three factories of IC packaging, factory C was ranked as having the lowest social impact on labor with a higher performance, followed by factories B and A. In addition, the results show that four indicators, “lacking labor union,” “did not hire a sufficient number of disabled employees,” “overtime work that exceeded the legal limit,” and “excessive number of dispatched workers,” were recognized as the main social impacts on labor in IC packaging production.

Conclusions

The SLCA technique was used to assess the impacts of the production processes of three IC packaging factories on the labor conditions of their factory workers. The proposed method shed light on the significant impacts of such processes. The proposed model demonstrated its potential advantage by systematically and effectively identifying the labor impact hotspots, which could assist managers in devising strategies that could improve the labor situations within their organizations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan for financially supporting this research under grant MOST 101-2221-E-236-002-MY3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institutes of Engineering Technology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

    Sheng-Wen Wang

  2. National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Sheng-Wen Wang

  3. Department of Tourism, Tungnan University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Chia-Wei Hsu

  4. Department of Business Administration, National Central University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

    Chia-Wei Hsu

  5. Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

    Allen H. Hu

Authors
  1. Sheng-Wen Wang
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  2. Chia-Wei Hsu
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  3. Allen H. Hu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Chia-Wei Hsu or Allen H. Hu.

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Responsible editor: Marzia Traverso.

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Wang, SW., Hsu, CW. & Hu, A.H. An analytical framework for social life cycle impact assessment—part 2: case study of labor impacts in an IC packaging company. Int J Life Cycle Assess 22, 784–797 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1185-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1185-7

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