scholarly journals Industry 4.0 and Smart Data as Enablers of the Circular Economy in Manufacturing: Product Re-Engineering with Circular Eco-Design

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10366
Author(s):  
Marco Vacchi ◽  
Cristina Siligardi ◽  
Erika Iveth Cedillo-González ◽  
Anna Maria Ferrari ◽  
Davide Settembre-Blundo

The digital transformation of manufacturing firms, in addition to making operations more efficient, offers important opportunities both to promote the transition to a circular economy and to experiment with new techniques for designing smarter and greener products. This study integrates Industry 4.0 technologies, smart data, Life Cycle Assessment methodology, and material microstructural analysis techniques to develop and apply a circular eco-design model that has been implemented in the Italian ceramic tile manufacturing industry. The model has been initially adopted in a simulation environment to define five different scenarios of raw material supply, alternative to the current production one. The scenarios were then validated operationally at laboratory scale and in a pilot environment, demonstrating that a proper selection of raw material transport systems significantly improves the environmental performance of the ceramic product. Both the results of the laboratory tests and of the pre-industrial experiments have demonstrated the technological feasibility of the solutions identified with circular eco-design, enabling the re-engineering of the ceramic product as the fifth of the 6Rs of the circular economy.

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (Number 2) ◽  
pp. 73-101
Author(s):  
Hafiz Mudassir Rehman ◽  
Hui Nee Au Yong ◽  
Yuen Onn Choong

The manufacturing industry is an indispensable part of the economy, especially for Malaysia. The manufacturing sector in Malaysia is not only transforming raw material into products, but also contributing significantly to the country’s economy. Malaysia has attained a significant position in the world by exporting its manufactured goods. However, the production services always require innovation to meet the ever-changing customer demands. With the advent of Industry 4.0, the manufacturing industry faces constant challenges such as the innovation capability of organizations, and swift and frequent shifts in the use of technology. These issues may hamper the efforts of manufacturing firms to fully participate in Industry 4.0 Malaysia. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the influence of knowledge-oriented leadership, electronic human resource management (E-HRM), and decentralised organisational structure on organizational innovation. The current research has adopted a quantitative method to establish the relationship between these three variables and innovation in organizations. A total of 218 samples were collected from manufacturing firms located in Malaysia. Data collected through a self-administered questionnaire was examined by using SmartPLS software. The results of this research has added to the body of knowledge in the respective field by highlighting the significance of knowledge-oriented leadership and E-HRM in predicting organizational innovation. It can further help stakeholders to plan a way forward in facing Industry 4.0 through the development of innovation competencies.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhishek Sahu ◽  
Saurabh Agrawal ◽  
Girish Kumar

PurposeIndustry 4.0 and circular economy are the two major areas in the current manufacturing industry. However, the adoption and implementation of Industry 4.0 and circular economy worldwide are still in the nascent stage of development. To address this gap, the purpose of this article is to conduct a systematic literature review on integrating Industry 4.0 and circular economy. Further, identify the research gaps and provide the future scope of work in this area.Design/methodology/approachContent-based analysis was adopted for reviewing the research articles and proposed a transition framework that comprises of four categories, namely, (1) Transition from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0 and integration with circular economy; (2) Adoption of combined factors and different issues; (3) Implementation possibilities such as front-end technologies, integration capabilities and redesigning strategies; (4) Current challenges. The proposed study reviewed a total of 204 articles published from 2000 to 2020 based on these categories.FindingsThe article presents a systematic literature review of the last two decades that integrates Industry 4.0 and circular economy concepts. Findings revealed that very few studies considered the adoption and implementation issues of Industry 4.0 and circular economy. Moreover, it was found that Industry 4.0 technologies including digitalization, real-time monitoring and decision-making capabilities played a significant role in circular economy implementation. The major elements are discussed through the analysis of the transition and integration framework. The study further revealed that a limited number of developing countries like India have taken preliminary initiatives toward Industry 4.0 and circular economy implementation.Research limitations/implicationsThe study proposes a transition and integration framework that identifies adoption and implementation issues and challenges. This framework will help researchers and practitioners in implementation of Industry 4.0 and circular economy.Originality/valueReviews of articles indicated that there are very few studies on integrating Industry 4.0 and circular economy. Moreover, there are very few articles addressing adoption and implementation issues such as legal, ethical, operational and demographic issues, which may be used to monitor the organization's performance and productivity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seeram Ramakrishna ◽  
Alfred Ngowi ◽  
Henk De Jager ◽  
Bankole O. Awuzie

Growing consumerism and population worldwide raises concerns about society’s sustainability aspirations. This has led to calls for concerted efforts to shift from the linear economy to a circular economy (CE), which are gaining momentum globally. CE approaches lead to a zero-waste scenario of economic growth and sustainable development. These approaches are based on semi-scientific and empirical concepts with technologies enabling 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) and 6Rs (reuse, recycle, redesign, remanufacture, reduce, recover). Studies estimate that the transition to a CE would save the world in excess of a trillion dollars annually while creating new jobs, business opportunities and economic growth. The emerging industrial revolution will enhance the symbiotic pursuit of new technologies and CE to transform extant production systems and business models for sustainability. This article examines the trends, availability and readiness of fourth industrial revolution (4IR or industry 4.0) technologies (for example, Internet of Things [IoT], artificial intelligence [AI] and nanotechnology) to support and promote CE transitions within the higher education institutional context. Furthermore, it elucidates the role of universities as living laboratories for experimenting the utility of industry 4.0 technologies in driving the shift towards CE futures. The article concludes that universities should play a pivotal role in engendering CE transitions.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 764
Author(s):  
Renato Sarc

ReWaste4.0 is an innovative and cooperative K-Project in the period 2017–2021. Through ReWaste4.0 the transformation of the non-hazardous mixed municipal and commercial waste treatment industry towards a circular economy has started by investigating and applying the new approaches of the Industry 4.0. Vision of the ReWaste4.0 is, among others, the development of treatment plants for non-hazardous waste into a “Smart Waste Factory” in which a digital communication and interconnection between material quality and machine as well as plant performance is reached. After four years of research and development, various results have been gained and the present review article summarizes, links and discuss the outputs (especially from peer-reviewed papers) of seven sub-projects, in total, within the K-project and discusses the main findings and their relevance and importance for further development of the waste treatment sector. Results are allocated into three areas, namely: contaminants in mixed waste and technical possibilities for their reduction as well as removal; secondary raw and energy materials in mixed waste and digitalization in waste characterization and treatment processes for mixed waste. The research conducted in ReWaste4.0 will be continued in ReWaste F for further development towards a particle-, sensor- and data-based circular economy in the period 2021–2025.


Author(s):  
Cristina Ciliberto ◽  
Katarzyna Szopik‐Depczyńska ◽  
Małgorzata Tarczyńska‐Łuniewska ◽  
Alessandro Ruggieri ◽  
Giuseppe Ioppolo

Author(s):  
Leonidas Milios

AbstractThe transition to a circular economy is a complex process requiring wide multi-level and multi-stakeholder engagement and can be facilitated by appropriate policy interventions. Taking stock of the importance of a well-balanced policy mix that includes a variety of complementing policy instruments, the circular economy action plan of the European Union (COM(2020) 98 final) includes a section about “getting the economics right” in which it encourages the application of economic instruments. This contribution presents a comprehensive taxation framework, applied across the life cycle of products. The framework includes (1) a raw material resource tax, (2) reuse/repair tax relief, and (3) a waste hierarchy tax at the end of life of products. The research is based on a mixed method approach, using different sources to analyse the different measures in the framework. More mature concepts, such as material resource taxes, are analysed by reviewing the existing literature. The analysis of tax relief on repairs is based on interviews with stakeholders in Sweden, where this economic policy instrument has been implemented since 2017. Finally, for the waste hierarchy tax, which is a novel proposition in this contribution, macroeconomic modelling is used to analyse potential impacts of future implementation. In all cases, several implementation challenges are identified, and potential solutions are discussed according to literature and empirical sources. Further research is required both at the individual instrument and at the framework level. Each of the tax proposals needs a more detailed examination for its specificities of implementation, following the results of this study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 293 ◽  
pp. 126023
Author(s):  
Shashank Kumar ◽  
Rakesh D. Raut ◽  
Kirti Nayal ◽  
Sascha Kraus ◽  
Vinay Surendra Yadav ◽  
...  

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 628
Author(s):  
Michail J. Beliatis ◽  
Kasper Jensen ◽  
Lars Ellegaard ◽  
Annabeth Aagaard ◽  
Mirko Presser

This paper investigates digital traceability technologies taking careful consideration of the company’s needs to improve the traceability of products at the production of GPV Group as well as the efficiency and added value in their production cycles. GPV is primarily an electronics manufacturing service company (EMS) that manufactures electronic circuit boards, in addition to big metal products at their mechanics manufacturing sites. The company aims to embrace the next generation IoT technologies such as digital traceability in their internal supply chain at manufacturing sites in order to stay compatible with the Industry 4.0 requirements. In this paper, the capabilities of suitable digital traceability technologies are screened together with the actual GPV needs to determine if deployment of such technologies would benefit GPV shop floor operations and can solve the issues they face due to a lack of traceability. The traceability term refers to tracking the geolocation of products throughout the manufacturing steps and how that functionality can foster further optimization of the manufacturing processes. The paper focuses on comparing different IoT technologies and analyze their positive and negative attributes to identify a suitable technological solution for product traceability in the metal manufacturing industry. Finally, the paper proposes a suitable implementation road map for GPV, which can also be adopted from other metal manufacturing industries to deploy Industry 4.0 traceability at shop floor level.


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