1,721,075 research outputs found
Remanufacturing for the Circular Economy: A Business Model analysis
No full textBusiness models based on remanufacturing are among the most promising ones for achieving Circular Economy. However, companies still find difficulties in understanding how business models could be reshaped to remanufacturing for the Circular Economy. In literature there is a paucity of contributions that define common guidelines on how to configure remanufacturing business models for the Circular Economy. Thus, this paper aims to outline a full list of configuration options that can be used in the development of remanufacturing business models for the Circular Economy. Configuration options are defined as key recurrent and common elements that are needed to setup a particular type of business model. A case study approach has been adopted to accomplish this aim. As a result, this study provides a case-based configuration of a generic remanufacturing business model for the Circular Economy. The full list of configuration options can be utilized to assist manufacturing companies in reshaping their value proposition, value delivery, value creation and value capture towards circularity based on remanufacturing
Assessing the readiness of manufacturing companies for the Circular Economy: an analysis and an initial proposal
No full textNowadays manufacturing companies are struggling with the transition towards a Circular Economy focused on sustainable production and consumption. The transition from linear business models to a Circular Economy is a great opportunity for industrial organizations to gain competitive advantage while decoupling economic growth from resource extraction and waste generation. However, manufacturing companies frequently fail in understanding where to start in approaching such a systemic transition, as fundamental changes are needed in the design of products, production processes, business models and supply chains. Moreover, scientific literature has only recently started to discuss Circular Economy extensively, still giving little support in understanding how it can be introduced in industrial organizations. To provide a first attempt into filling this gap, this paper proposes a model to assess the readiness of manufacturing companies for the Circular Economy paradigm. A review and a critical comparison of existing tools is carried out. Based on this review, a readiness assessment model is then proposed. The model provides an improved understanding of Circular Economy for manufacturing firms, supporting them in assessing their potential and giving insights on where to start to address such transition
Towards the circular supply chain: a literature review of challenges
No full textThe notion of Circular Economy (CE) has been arisen as a promising approach to promote sustainability
without compromising economic growth. However, companies who are going to redesign their supply chain to
adopt the CE paradigm face several challenges. Despite their relevance in such an early stage of CE practices
adoption by companies, literature still lacks a systemic and holistic identification of this set of challenges. In fact,
previous research either focused on a particular industrial sector, on a geographical context, on a specific firm
category or by limiting the analysis to only some CE aspect. Therefore, this paper carries out a literature review to
identify the main challenges that companies have to face when they want to redesign their supply chain according to
CE principles, i.e. to implement a circular supply chain. As much as 24 challenges have been identified and classified
in accordance with the life cycle phase(s) affected and the CE lever(s) touched as recognized in literature, i.e. product
redesign, servitised business models, reverse logistics and system enablers (e.g. legislation or digital 4.0 technologies).
Findings highlight the multidisciplinary character of CE, and show that the challenges are quite distributed among
the different life cycle phases, implying that companies who desire to implement a circular supply chain should be
prepared to face challenges related to both the direct and the reverse flows of materials, despite the common
thinking that CE is only related to reverse logistics. Moreover, findings show that a non-negligible number of
challenges arises within each CE lever, thus confirming the need for a systemic and holistic approach. Managers may
use the set of challenges to prevent likely barriers that arise in the transition towards CE
Benefits and acceptance rate of Circular Economy alternatives: evidences from a user survey in the washing machine industry
No full textCircular Economy is gaining attention as a means to decouple economic growth from resource use. This
phenomenon is particularly relevant for the washing machine industry, where several Circular Economy alternatives
to the business-as-usual scenario – such as the purchasing of refurbished appliances or the use of pay-per-wash services
– may unlock environmental gains and economic benefits. To succeed, these alternatives should reach a high consensus
among users, who usually are not aware of the benefits achievable through Circular Economy solutions. Thus, the
purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it provides an estimation of the economic and environmental potential of
Circular Economy alternatives, against the current scenario, in terms of savings for users and avoided CO2 emissions.
Second, it aims to investigate users’ acceptance of such alternatives. To do so, this research develops a lifecycle model
to quantify the economic and environmental impacts in the current households setting and in two alternatives
(refurbishment and pay-per-use), considering different usage habits. Then, a user survey is designed to collect the main
data related to washing (such as number of washing cycle, washing machine capacity, energy efficiency class, etc.). Data
from Italian households are collected and used to feed the lifecycle model. Results show that pay-per-wash offering
allows reducing CO2 emissions, but performs worse than the business-as-usual scenario in terms of users’ costs. Thus,
a proper definition of pay-per-use fees is crucial in this regard. On the other hand, purchasing refurbished washing
machines allows achieving both environmental benefits and economic savings to users. Unfortunately, few users show
interest in considering such alternatives
Enabling technologies, impacts and challenges of “Industry 4.0” in the manufacturing context: some insights from a preliminary literature review
No full textThe initiative of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has been proposed in Germany in 2011. From that moment, both
academical and industrial communities started to be interested in this new paradigm due to its potential capability of
transforming traditional manufacturing systems into flexible, customizable and autonomous ones. Indeed, scholars
have provided contributions aimed at developing a framework for Industry 4.0 related concepts such as smart
factory, factory of the future (FoF) and cyber physical systems (CPS). Furthermore, the literature investigates vertical
and horizontal integration enabled by Industry 4.0 enabling technologies, as well as their industrial practices.
Nonetheless, a comprehensive understanding of the concept of Industry 4.0 evaluating the overall plethora of I4.0
enabling technologies has been addressed by very few studies in the literature. Moreover, the potential impacts as
well as the challenges related to the application of Industry 4.0 are scattered in different studies. On that basis, this
paper aims at presenting a state-of-art of industry 4.0 paradigm applied in the manufacturing context. In particular,
this study focuses on identifying i) the I4.0 enabling technologies; ii) the achievable benefits and faced obstacles in
adopting I4.0 paradigm and; iii) the human- and sustainability- related factors effected by Industry 4.0. This objective
has been achieved based on the preliminary results of a literature review of 73 papers selected from Scopus and
Web-of-Science databases. The (preliminary) results allowed to point out the main elements emerging from the
sample analyzed, as well as their level of diffusion within the literature. Although various contributions have been
written on Industry 4.0 area, the majority of them are focused on the impacts of digital enabling technologies in the
domain of smart factory, stressing the topic of production scheduling and maintenance. Less attention has been paid
on the improvement of product or service development and to the reconfiguration of the supply chain in the I4.0
era. This paper also shows that human and sustainability related aspects are less focused, but there is an increasing
trend in recent years. Besides, even though the implementation of I4.0 enabling technologies in single business
processes has been addressed by several works in the literature, utilization of combination of different technologies
and a clear definition of what types of benefits they can bring out, is under-investigated
Industry 4.0 revolution: state-of-the-art of the Italian manufacturing context
No full textHigher global competition and more complex customer demands pushes manufacturers to provide valueadded
products to the market in a faster and more reliable way. Companies can exploit the outstanding
improvements in digital technologies whose adoption has brought to the so-called “Industry 4.0” (I4.0) revolution.
Indeed, technologies such as Additive Manufacturing (AM), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Big Data &
Advanced Analytics, Virtual & Augmented Reality and Cloud Manufacturing are transforming companies into smart
enterprises characterized by the interconnection of processes and assets. Though the adoption of technologies and
the benefits related to this new paradigm has been quite debated in the literature, it seems that no study has been
conducted regarding the adoption level of Industry 4.0 principles in Italy. This article shows the results of an
exploratory survey, in which a sample of 105 companies has been involved, covering the most important
manufacturing sectors. The main objective of this study is the provision of a state-of-the-art review on how the
Italian manufacturing enterprises are involved in the I4.0 journey. Except for IIoT and AM, our findings indicate
that Italian manufacturing companies have a limited knowledge for I4.0 enabling technologies. The survey results
also revealed that the medium and large companies, characterized by a high level of automation and computerization
capability, tend to be much more incline to adopt I4.0 paradigm and related technologies. In the next future, by
adopting the same methodology, we will extend the boundaries of the research involving companies of other
countries, in order to highlight contingent differences compared to Italy
A new framework for assessing circular economy scenarios in the washing machine industry
No full textAlthough the circular economy is usually indicated as a way to reconcile economic growth and
sustainability, circular economy business projects are not implemented on a large scale yet. Developing new methods
able to demonstrate the economic, environmental and social benefits of circular economy scenarios can support
stakeholders to embrace this transition. This paper proposes and discusses the actions required for reshaping the
washing machine industry towards a more circular economy scenario. Thus, an overview of a new framework, based
on the results of a literature review, is provided. Albeit the research is only at its initial stage, the new framework
described in this paper can be used to support static simulation and what-if analysis. With the aim to provide an idea
about the order of magnitude of benefits gathered by a circular economy transition, the outcomes of some
preliminary computations are estimated and discussed. Results show that customers could benefit from an average
yearly saving of almost 30% of the current washing cost, while the country energy generation and water consumption
could be reduced of about 0.6% and 1% respectively. Although they are only preliminary, these results show how
such a model can contribute to reduce the uncertainty that typically characterize circular economy transitio
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