Usability and Usefulness of Circularity Indicators for Manufacturing Performance Management
Paper in proceeding, 2022

Advances in industrial digitalization present many opportunities for process and product data exploitation in manufacturing, unlocking new systemic measures of performance beyond a single machine, process, facility area and even beyond the factory gates. However, existing data models and manufacturing systems' performance measures are still focused on productivity, quality and delivery time, which could potentially lead to an accelerated linear economy. To shift to more circular industrial systems, we need to identify and assess circularity opportunities in ways that align the goals of sustainable and industrial development. In this study, micro-level circular indicators were reviewed, selected, analysed and tested in a manufacturing company to evaluate their usability and usefulness to guide process improvements. The aim is to enable circular and eco-efficient solutions towards sustainable production systems. Usability and usefulness of the indicators are essential to their integration into established environmental and operations management systems. The main contribution of this study is in the identification of key features making circularity indicators usable and useful from a manufacturer's perspective. The conclusion also suggests directions for further research on tools and methods to support circular manufacturing.

Sustainable manufacturing

Circular economy

Circularity indicators

Author

Fu Siang Syu

Student at Chalmers

Adarsh Vasudevan

Student at Chalmers

Mélanie Despeisse

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Production Systems

Arpita Chari

Ebru Turanoglu Bekar

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Production Systems

Maria M. Gonçalves

Instituto De Soldadura E Qualidade

Marco A. Estrela

Instituto De Soldadura E Qualidade

Procedia CIRP

22128271 (eISSN)

Vol. 105 835-840

29th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering, LCE 2022
Leuven, Belgium,

Factory Resource and Energy Efficiency through Digitalization (FREED)

VINNOVA (2020-05180), 2021-04-01 -- 2021-12-31.

Twinning for Industrial Sustainability (TRUST)

European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/810764), 2018-10-01 -- 2022-06-30.

Enabling REuse, REmanufacturing and REcycling Within INDustrial systems (REWIND)

VINNOVA (2019-00787), 2019-03-01 -- 2022-02-28.

Subject Categories

Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified

Environmental Management

DOI

10.1016/j.procir.2022.02.138

More information

Latest update

8/24/2022