Exploring Industry 4.0 technologies to enable circular economy practices in a manufacturing context

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how rising technologies from Industry 4.0 can be integrated with circular economy (CE) practices to establish a business model that reuses and recycles wasted material such as scrap metal or e-waste. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative research method was deployed in three stages. Stage 1 was a literature review of concepts, successful factors and barriers related to the transition towards a CE along with sustainable supply chain management, smart production systems and additive manufacturing (AM). Stage 2 comprised a conceptual framework to integrate and evaluate the synergistic potential among these concepts. Finally, stage 3 validated the proposed model by collecting rich qualitative data based on semi-structured interviews with managers, researchers and professors of operations management to gather insightful and relevant information. Findings The outcome of the study is the recommendation of a circular model to reuse scrap electronic devices, integrating web technologies, reverse logistics and AM to support CE practices. Results suggest a positive influence from improving business sustainability by reinserting waste into the supply chain to manufacture products on demand. Research limitations/implications The impact of reusing wasted materials to manufacture new products is relevant to minimising resource consumption and negative environmental impacts. Furthermore, it avoids hazardous materials ending up in landfills or in the oceans, seriously threatening life in ecosystems. In addition, reuse of wasted material enables the development of local business networks that generate jobs and improve economic performance. Practical implications First, the impact of reusing materials to manufacture new products minimises resource consumption and negative environmental impacts. The circular model also encourages keeping hazardous materials that seriously threaten life in ecosystems out of landfills and oceans. For this study, it was found that most urban waste is plastic and cast iron, leaving room for improvement in increasing recycling of scrap metal and similar materials. Second, the circular business model promotes a culture of reusing and recycling and motivates the development of collection and processing techniques for urban waste through the use of three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies and Industry 4.0. In this way, the involved stakeholders are focused on the technical parts of recycling and can be better dedicated to research, development and innovation because many of the processes will be automated. Social implications The purpose of this study was to explore how Industry 4.0 technologies are integrated with CE practices. This allows for the proposal of a circular business model for recycling waste and delivering new products, significantly reducing resource consumption and optimising natural resources. In a first stage, the circular business model can be used to recycle electronic scrap, with the proposed integration of web technologies, reverse logistics and AM as a technological platform to support the model. These have several environmental, sociotechnical and economic implications for society. Originality/value The sociotechnical aspects are directly impacted by the circular smart production system (CSPS) management model, since it creates a new culture of reuse and recycling techniques for urban waste using 3D printing technologies, as well as Industry 4.0 concepts to increase production on demand and automate manufacturing processes. The tendency of the CSPS model is to contribute to deployment CE in the manufacture of new products or parts with AM approaches, generating a new path of supply and demand for society.

Assessing relations between Circular Economy and Industry 4.0: a systematic literature review

“…Li et al 2015) or implementing smart manufacturing practices (Kusiak 2018) (see Table 5). In rare cases, experts focused on exploitation of BDA for other reasons, such as improving disassembly sequence planning (Marconi et al 2018), considering recycling issues during product design (Lin 2018), assessing cost (Angioletti, Despeisse, and Rocca 2017) x (Bassi 2017) x (Bloomfield and Borstrock 2018) x (Clemon and Zohdi 2018) x x (Dutta et al 2001) x (Giurco et al 2014) x (Lahrour and Brissaud 2018) x (Le, Paris, and Mandil 2017a) x (Le, Paris, and Mandil 2017b) x (Leino, Pekkarinen, and Soukka 2016) x (Ma et al 2018) x (Mandil et al 2016) x (Mattos Nascimento et al 2018) x (Millard et al 2018) x (Minetola and Eyers 2018) x x (Müller et al 2018) x (Santander et al 2018) x (Sauerwein, Bakker, and Balkenende 2017) x (Sauerwein and Doubrovski 2018) x (Schmidt et al 2017) x (Sheng Yang et al 2017) x (Syed-Khaja, Perez, and Franke 2016)…”

“…x (Gorissen, Vrancken, and Manshoven 2016) x (Jin et al 2014) x (Kölsch et al 2017) x (A. Q. Li and Found 2017) x x x (Mattos Nascimento et al 2018) x (Millard et al 2018) x x x (Panarotto, Wall, and Larsson 2017) x (Pistol, Bucea-Manea-Tonis, and Bucea-Manea-Tonis 2017) x (Prendeville et al 2016) x (Simons 2017) x (Soroka et al 2017) x (Ünal, Urbinati, and Chiaroni 2018) x Total 6 3 2 2 11 (Ashjaei and Bengtsson 2017) x (Baines 2015) x (Borangiu, Thomas, and Trentesaux 2013) x (Caggiano 2018) x (Franquesa and Navarro 2018) x (Franquesa, Navarro, and Bustamante 2016) x (Herterich, Uebernickel, and Brenner 2015a) x (Herterich, Uebernickel, and Brenner 2015b) x (Herterich et al 2015) x (Jardim-Goncalves, Romero, and Grilo 2017) x (Kowalkowski et al 2017) x (Lee, Bagheri, and Kao 2015) x (Lindström et al 2018) x (Spring and Araujo 2017) x (Verdugo Cedeño et al 2017) x (Yu, Xu, and Lu 2015) x Total 7 3 3 2 2 Millard et al 2018). BDA can be useful for assessing innovative business models through integrative frameworks (Chiappetta Jabbour et al 2017) or for particular types of companies (Soroka et al 2017).…”

“…potential. Regarding AM, the main goal has been developing CBMs focused on recycled materials(Mattos Nascimento et al 2018; …”

Smart Manufacturing Systems and Applied Industrial Technologies for a Sustainable Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Indeed, the extraction of natural resources, excessive waste production, and global warming are problems known to all [6]. In this regard, emerging searches have shown how a circular model to reuse waste has a positive influence on improving the entire supply chain to manufacture products [7][8][9], while others have focused on the impacts of digital technologies in the domain of manufacturing, optimization processes, and scheduling problems [10,11] to solve the problem of industrial pollution and a waste of resources. It is a vitally important issue worldwide.…”

The Model of Logistic Chains in the Arctic Zone Conditions in Industry 4.0

“…[2][3][4] In this regard, for the effective development of the Arctic zone, it is necessary to form a well-thought-out logistic chain that would be part of a single vector of strategic development of the Arctic, taking into account the risks associated with the development of the territories of the Arctic zone, the requirements of ecology and social projects for indigenous people. [5,6] The existing experience of developing the Arctic territories of circumpolar countries shows [7,8] the need for high costs for the formation of infrastructure, also logistics. In addition, the achievement of high efficiency of the process of development of the Arctic requires:…”