Closing the loop for resource efficiency is a well‐known practice in the industry. To concretize the circular economy implementation strategies, closed‐loop thinking requires innovation and adaptation. Circular supply chains (CSCs) are one of the key enablers in closing the loop by design or intention for value recovery and profit maximization. CSC is an emerging area, and the view of CSC where forward and reverse supply chain is seamlessly integrated with the overall aim to achieve system‐wide circularity is missing in the academic debate. By offering a cross‐functional perspective of CSC, this paper presents a CSC guiding framework to structure and understand the underlying complexities and highlight the crucial elements of the CSC implementation. Thus, this framework lays the basis for CSC within the systemic implementation of CE by closing the loop by design or intention. The framework categorizes the CSC into four building blocks, namely, systemic approach, main drivers, levels of decision making, and mechanisms to manage the full loop closure and minimize the inherent uncertainties of a complex system. The building blocks of the framework are synthesized from various streams of supply chain literature and recurring concepts in the circular economy literature. The CSC framework applicability is illustrated using two industrial cases that are transitioning towards the circular economy.
Stretchable electronics is a new innovation and becoming popular in various fields, especially in the healthcare sector. Since stretchable electronics use less printed circuit boards (PCBs), it is expected that the environmental performance of a stretchable electronics-based device is better than a rigid electronics-based device that provides the same functionalities. Yet, such a study is rarely available. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to perform a comparative life cycle analysis of stretchable and rigid electronics-based devices. This research combines both the case study approach and the research review approach. For the case study, a cardiac monitoring device with both stretchable and rigid electronics is used. The ISO 14044:2006 standard's prescribed LCA approach and ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (Hierarchist) are followed for the impact assessment using the SimaPro 9.1 software. The LCA results show that the stretchable cardiac monitoring device has better environmental performance in all eighteen impact categories. This research also shows that the manufacturing process of stretchable electronics has lower environmental impacts than those for rigid electronics. The main reasons for the improved environmental performance of stretchable electronics are lower consumption of raw material as well as decreased energy consumption during manufacturing. Based on the LCA results of a cardiac monitoring device, the study concludes that stretchable electronics and their manufacturing process have better environmental performance in comparison with the rigid electronics and their manufacturing process.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.