FACTORS AFFECTING PRODUCTIVITY OF REFUSE COMPACTOR VEHICLES IN INDIA.

Shift towards mechanization in the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is aimed at improving health wellbeing of the workers who are manually handling waste. With huge investment and operating costs, proper evaluation and monitoring of the performances of these equipment is essential. Identifying and rating the factors which impact the performance of equipment is the first step towards improving efficiency of a system. This research identifies the critical factors and issues in the operation optimization of refuse compactor vehicles. Interviews with experts and field studies helped in identification of 30 factors which were divided in five categories. The research uses analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for finding out the priority vectors of thus identified factors and categories. The study also highlights equipment selection parameters for the best suited model and make. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]