No abstract

Remanufacturing is proposed as a strategy to develop circular business models to manage resource loops in the future circular economy (CE). If remanufacturing is to occupy a central role in the CE it needs to be considered from a series of complementary and synchronous business activities. Thus, the aim of this article is to investigate how such an integrated perspective can drive sustainable value creation within the context of remanufacturing business models. This is explored through three business cases: Philips Healthcare Refurbished Systems, Siemens Wind Power, and Orangebox. This 'integrated view' considers remanufacturing activities according to: product design and development; remanufacturing processes; value chain design and management; and marketing and consumer/user relationship. The research question asks, 'Can an integrated perspective drive sustainable value creation in remanufacturing contexts?' To answer this, the research maps a set of triple-bottom-line indicators across the chosen cases. The work contributes to the field by mapping a set of business mechanisms (e.g. warranties, service approaches, partnerships) that can be utilised to co-develop necessary activities in unison for a successful remanufacturing approach. In certain cases, remanufacturing has the potential to add to the triple-bottom-line through such an integrated approach. However, each of the firms are investing in remanufacturing predominantly for profitability and market protection measures and therefore environmental and social components of the triple-bottom-line must be proactively considered.

Remanufacturing is recognized as a major circular economy option to recover and upgrade functions from post-use products. However, the inefficiencies associated with operations, mainly due to the uncertainty and variability of material flows and product conditions, undermine the growth of remanufacturing. With the objective of supporting the design and management of more proficient and robust remanufacturing processes, this paper proposes a generic and reconfigurable simulation model of remanufacturing systems. The developed model relies upon a modular framework that enables the user to handle multiple process settings and production control policies, among which token-based policies. Customizable to the characteristics of the process under analysis, this model can support logistics performance evaluation of different production control policies, thus enabling the selection of the optimal policy in specific business contexts. The proposed model is applied to a real remanufacturing environment in order to validate and demonstrate its applicability and benefits in the industrial settings.

No abstract

For product designers, the world has traditionally been one of resource abundance. Introducing them to a resource-constrained world thus requires new design strategies. This chapter explores how embedding circular economy principles into design practice and education could help product designers take critical material problems into account. We introduce four product design strategies that address materials criticality: (1) avoiding and (2) minimizing the use of critical materials, (3) designing products for prolonged use and reuse, and (4) designing products for recycling. The 'circular' strategies (3) and (4) are elaborated, as these sit most firmly within the remit of product design. This leads to a typology of circular product design that redefines product and material lifetime in terms of obsolescence, and introduces a range of approaches to resist, postpone or reverse product and material obsolescence. The typology establishes the basis for the field of circular product design, bringing together design approaches that were until this date unconnected and paving the way for the development of detailed design methods.