Impact of maintenance on circular economy

Novel business models that leverage the largely untapped potential of circular economy are gradually emerging in several industries. The widespread use of circular economy has implications for asset management in manufacturing industry, as they bring new challenges and opportunities for managing and maintaining machinery and equipment. The importance of asset management and maintenance for the circular economy is studied in the Tekes funded "Data to Wisdom" project. Circular economy can be defined as a system which creates value by minimizing waste, energy and the use of natural resources. It also utilises solutions that aim at slowing, closing and narrowing loops of material and energy. These solutions include, for instance, long-lasting design, design for easy disassembly and maintainability, maintenance actions such as repair and refurbishing, reuse, remanufacturing and recycling. In this paper, we analyse circular economy archetypes from the life cycle management perspective. This is done by comparing circular economy archetypes against the fundamentals of asset management. Opportunities and threats produced by the circular economy for asset management and maintenance are addressed with real cases presented in Sitra's list of the most interesting companies in the circular economy in Finland.