Digital technologies for circular manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is undergoing some significant transformations. One exam-ple is the shift from exclusive to shared ownership of products and services. Further-more, the scarcity of natural resources is leading to more circular approaches to manu-facturing. The manufacturing industry needs to become greener and more digital while remaining competitive on the global stage. Intelligent use of production assets, resources and materials lies at the core of a circular economy. Circular manufacturing is providing the means for increasing resource efficiency and reducing the use of natural resources. A circular economy mainly contributes to overcoming environmental challenges via implementing various R-cycles, such as reduce, repair, recycle, remanufacture, to mention a few.
The purpose of this white paper is to provide an overview of circular manufacturing, especially the opportunities for utilising digital technologies in circular manufacturing’s nine R-cycles (9Rs). Additionally, it presents the integration of digital technologies and 9Rs from four different perspectives – risk and safety, waste hierarchy, additive manufacturing and life cycle assessment – as well as in two different proof-of-concepts (PoCs) related to data sharing for the purpose of achieving sustainability goals.