Digital twin of end-of-life process-chains for a circular economy adapted product design - A case study on PET bottles

in Journal of Cleaner Production (2023), 382

The concept of Circular Economy (CE) is gaining increasing attention as an indispensable renewal of linear economy without neglecting sustainable development goals. Closing resource loops and keeping ... [more ▼]

The concept of Circular Economy (CE) is gaining increasing attention as an indispensable renewal of linear economy without neglecting sustainable development goals. Closing resource loops and keeping resources in the system at the highest level of use for as long as possible are cited as the main goals of CE. However, due to missing information exchange, the lack of consistency between the existing end-of-life (EOL) infrastructure and the respective product designs hinders a successful circularity of resources. This research presents a method to collect, process, and apply EOL process data to provide the beginning-of-life (BOL) with important EOL-knowledge through a CE-adapted product design assessment. EOL-data is collected using a Circular Value Stream Mapping (C-VSM), EOL-information is processed using a digital state flow representation, and EOL-knowledge is applied by providing a decision-support tool for product designers in the context of a PET bottle case study in Luxembourg. The goal is to anticipate a circular flow of resources by reflectively aligning product design with the relevant EOL infrastructure. In contrast to the linear economy, the developed method makes it possible to consider not only the requirements of users but also the actual end users, the EOL process chains, when designing products. [less ▲]

Digitization of the work environment for sustainable production

Book published by GITO (2022)

Global pandemics, devastating wars and natural disasters with increasing frequency and impact are disrupting previously carefully balanced manufacturing networks. All industrial companies are required to ... [more ▼]

Global pandemics, devastating wars and natural disasters with increasing frequency and impact are disrupting previously carefully balanced manufacturing networks. All industrial companies are required to examine their operations and adjust accordingly. The increasing cost of resources require enterprises to re-design their value creation processes to be more sustainable, to optimize the supplier network to become more resilient and to accelerate digitizing of operations to enhance operational effectiveness. This year's WGAB research seminar is themed around Digitization of the work environment for sustainable production and seeks to contribute solutions to the current challenges. The scientific discourse aims to advance the sustainable and data-based organization of value creation processes. Exemplary efforts for the sustainable production of 3D printed footwear and the circular supply chain of energy production will be discussed. With advances in sensory data collection in cyber-physical production systems (CPPS), there are new opportunities for sensing the status of manufacturing systems, which enable advanced data analytics to contribute to a sustainable production. Intelligent processes enable sustainable value creation and bi-directional knowledge exchange between humans and machines. With people at the centre of the CPPS, production systems shall be both adaptive and personalized for every worker. People need to be involved in the technological and organizational changes. Simulating the migration from a linear economy to a circular economy supports the trend of regionalized production networks. Digital assistance systems are tested to back up resilient manufacturing. We would like to thank all authors for their efforts in preparing the contributions, which are valuable inputs to the discourse to solve the current challenges. [less ▲]

Sustainability and Circular Economy in Learning Factories – Case Studies

in SSRN (2022, April 11)

Since the mitigation of climate change is one of the biggest challenges to face on a global scale, the topic has become more relevant also in industrial context. Learning factories have proven to be ... [more ▼]

Since the mitigation of climate change is one of the biggest challenges to face on a global scale, the topic has become more relevant also in industrial context. Learning factories have proven to be suitable environments to address and convey competencies to tackle industrial challenges in an interactive way. Hence, several learning factories are already dealing with sustainability topics in various use cases. This paper strives to present a state of the art of sustainability and circular economy in learning factories. Therefore, a classification framework is developed based on the state of the art of several learning factories and existing literature regarding the topic. This framework is then used to systematically describe the different activities regarding sustainability and circular economy that are currently ongoing in learning factories worldwide. This can be used to get an idea about the different aspects of the topic and how to address them, but furthermore also offers assistance to identify “blind spots” which could and should be addressed in learning factories in the future. [less ▲]

An Innovative Strategy Allowing a Holisitic System Change towards Circular Economy within Supply-Chains

in Energies (2021), 14(14),

: The concept of the circular economy (CE) is receiving encouraging attention among scholars and practitioners, as a convenient solution to move away from the linear economy concept without neglecting the ... [more ▼]

: The concept of the circular economy (CE) is receiving encouraging attention among scholars and practitioners, as a convenient solution to move away from the linear economy concept without neglecting the goals of sustainable development. The main goals of the CE are the closing of resource loops and the keeping of resources in the system for as long as possible at the highest utility level. However, as a result of the lack of internationally accepted definitions of the CE and several unsolved barriers, an excessive and inconsistent number of different CE applications exist. Most fields are mainly focusing on making a linear system circular instead of applying the CE principles in a holistic way. This paper presents a strategy to close the mentioned inconsistency gap, by contrasting currently discussed CE barriers and goals and thereof deriving two areas with a need for action (1. identifying the needed collection, sorting, and recovery infrastructure, and 2. developing circular product design guidelines). The strategy itself consists of connecting these two areas through an improved information exchange between the end-of-life (EOL) and beginning-of-life (BOL) of products. The result is CE design guidelines which are in accordance with the available or needed collection, sorting, and recovery infrastructure. The proposed strategy presents an innovative solution to apply CE principles in a holistic manner, based on EOL-driven product design. [less ▲]