Industry 4.0 and the circular economy : melioration of business logistics sustainability

Abstract: Mining and mineral resources help provide the requirements of everyday life by contributing to essential products and services. In the era of fourth industrial revolution, the trend in logistics is toward a smart logistics system. Therefore, it becomes important to understand how Industry 4.0 enablers effect smart logistics, i.e., instrumented logistics, interconnected logistics, and intelligent logistics. This study investigates how Industry 4.0 logistics technologies influence dynamic remanufacturing and green manufacturing capability and, the effect on business logistics sustainability. Survey data were collected from 150 respondents using an online survey of South African executives in firms operating mines, quarries, and processing plants. Partial Least Squares based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that Industry 4.0 enablers have a strong effect on intelligent logistics compared to its effect on interconnected logistics and instrumented logistics. The effect of intelligent logistics are found to be very high compared to that of interconnected logistics and instrumented logistics on dynamic remanufacturing and green manufacturing capability. Finally, dynamic remanufacturing and green manufacturing capability are found to positively influence business logistics sustainability

Reverse logistics

This paper gives an overview of scientific literature that describes and discusses cases of reverse logistics activities in practice. Over sixty case studies are considered. Based on these studies we are able to indicate critical factors for the practice of reverse logistics. In addition we compare practice with theoretical models and point out research opportunities in the field

Remanufacturing as a potential means of attaining sustainable industrial development in Indonesia

Remanufacturing industries account for a considerable share of small medium enterprises (SMEs) in both developed and developing countries. There is an urgent need for a sustainable manufacturing strategy for remanufacturing SMEs in developing countries in order for them to gain global market competitiveness through minimizing environmental impact while maximizing the economic and social benefits of SME manufacturing activities. This research uses Indonesian remanufacturing SMEs as a case study for sustainable manufacturing in developing countries

The case for transforming the approach to waste, and growing a circular economy; a design perspective.

In recent years, there has been a growing discussion of resource efficiency, the ‘circular economy’ and the economic and environmental benefits of maximising the value of resources beyond the life of a product. This Environmental Audit Committee inquiry was initiated to examine the case for transforming the approach to waste, and growing a 'circular economy'. This is an evidence paper published online at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmenvaud/214/21411.htm A full transcript of the inquiry is available at http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/environmental-audit-committee/growing-a-circular-economy/oral/9635.html

Periodic Review, Push Inventory Policies for Remanufacturing

Sustainability has become a major issue in most economies, causing many leading companies to focus on product recovery and reverse logistics. This research is focused on product recovery, and in particular on production control and inventory management in the remanufacturing context. We study a remanufacturing facility that receives a stream of returned products according to a Poisson process. Demand is uncertain and also follows a Poisson process. The decision problems for the remanufacturing facility are when to release returned products to the remanufacturing line and how many new products to manufacture. We assume that remanufactured products are as good as new. In this paper, we employ a "push" policy that combines these two decisions. It is well known that the optimal policy parameters are difficult to find analytically; therefore, we develop several heuristics based on traditional inventory models. We also investigate the performance of the system as a function of return rates, backorder costs and manufacturing and remanufacturing lead times; and we develop approximate lower and upper bounds on the optimal solution. We illustrate and explain some counter-intuitive results and we test the performance of the heuristics on a set of sample problems. We find that the average error of the heuristics is quite low.inventory;reverse logistics;remanufacturing;environment;heuristics

Design Principles for Closed Loop Supply Chains

In this paper we study design principles for closed loop supply chains. Closed loop supply chains aim at closing material flows thereby limiting emission and residual waste, but also providing customer service at low cost. We study 'traditional' and 'new' design principles known in the literature. It appears that setting up closed loop supply chains requires some additional design principles because of sustainability requirements. At the same time however, we see that traditional principles also apply. Subsequently we look at a business situation at Honeywell. Here, only a subset of the relevant design principles is applied. The apparent low status of reverse logistics may provide an explanation for this. To some extent, the same mistakes are made again as were 20 years ago in, for instance, inbound logistics. Thus, obvious improvements can be made by applying traditional principles. Also new principles, which require a life cycle driven approach, need to be applied. This can be supported by advanced management tools such as LCA and LCC.reverse logistics;case-study;closed loop supply chains

The Circular Economy: A review of definitions, processes and impacts. CEPS Research Report No 2017/8, April 2017

Transforming the linear economy, which has remained the dominant model since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, into a circular one is by no means an easy task. Such a radical change entails a major transformation of our current production and consumption patterns, which in turn will have a significant impact on the economy, the environment and society. Understanding these impacts is crucial for researchers as well as for policy-makers engaged in designing future policies in the field. This requires developing an in-depth knowledge of the concept of the circular economy, its processes and their expected effects on sectors and value chains. This paper reviews the growing literature on the circular economy with the aim of improving our understanding of the concept as well as its various dimensions and expected impacts. On the basis of this review, it attempts to map the processes involved and their application in different sectors. The paper suggests that research on the circular economy is currently fragmented across various disciplines and there are often different perspectives and interpretations of the concept and the related aspects that need to be assessed. This fragmentation is also evident in the available studies that adopt different approaches in calculating the impacts, which makes efforts at comparing the results from different sources very challenging. Finally, this paper suggests that there is limited information on the indirect effects on the economy (e.g. impacts on the value chain and/or changes in consumption spending patterns) as well as the social impacts of the circular economy transition

Circularity in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive. Comparison of a manufacturer's Danish and Norwegian operations

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as a reverse supply chain (RSC) has a low degree of circularity, mainly focusing on recovering or recycling. Targets to increase the circularity have recently been introduced in the EU WEEE directive. In this case study, we have investigated how WEEE is handled within an electric and electronic (EE) equipment manufacturer. The case study includes findings from two different Nordic countries, Norway and Denmark, with interviews of six stakeholders. The case study shows that there are significant differences in how the case company fulfills its extended producer responsibility (EPR), especially related to reporting. The study also found that there is a mismatch between the ambitions in the WEEE directive and a company’s approach related to circularity in the end-of-life phase of an EE product. Based on the results of this case study and from the literature we propose recommendations on alignment with other directives and on a common information regime within the WEEE RSC. Keywords: waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE); product information flow; reverse supply chain; manufacturer; circularity.publishedVersio