Search

Manufacturing industries are experiencing a data-driven paradigm shift that is changing how technical operations are run and changing present business models. Leveraging on manufacturing data from industries and digital intelligence platforms have become important in creating new forms of value. While extending the life of a product through the circular economy 3 R’s of reuse, re-manufacturing and recycling remains a technical and resource challenge for practitioners, optimizing the increasing forms and volumes of data presents a complementary and necessary challenge to the circular economy. This research aims to explore how the manufacturing data can inform remanufacturing parameters for implementing remanufacturing on the Rechargeable Energy Storage System.

This paper seeks to examine the area of circular economy, providing an overview of the development of data driven circular approaches in manufacturing, particularly Industry 4.0, from the point of view of Reuse, Remanufacturing, Redistribution and Recycle. This paper also aims to develop a working framework for future circular economy research. The Design, methodological approach of this paper focuses on a comprehensive review of literature covering over 51 research papers. These papers are analysed using pie charts and bar charts to understand current trends in circular economy and circular economy related research and future research directions in the field. Findings show that research on circular economy has been steady and gradual with 2014 and 2015 having the most papers on the subject with 43% of the papers from engineering related research. Research which links circular strategies and their application within Industry 4.0 to digital technologies is still a very new area of research and, as such, is an area for further studies. Although papers on Circular Economy and Circular Economy Approaches exists, however, there are no papers that offer an overview of the development of circular approaches within manufacturing. The contribution of this paper is to provide a summary of current trends in circular economy research in manufacturing, within focus on Industry 4.0. A review of this development has been provided in the form of illustrative charts and graphs that identifies these trends. From this a framework for future circular economy research as it relates to manufacturing was developed.

Obesity amongst the Mexican population has increased rapidly in the last 10 years, having an impact in public health. This study aims to assess the impact of agri-food production indicators such as accessibility, availability and affordability (A3) of food and their impact on consumers’ behaviour to further understand the nutritional transition in Mexico. The paper presents findings from a systematic literature review and secondary data analysis, which suggests the agriculture sector has an important role in improving nutrition. Initial findings from the literature review revealed that this sector has been highly neglected in Mexico, and recent uncertainties such as the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have had an impact on nutrition inequalities. Such inequalities could be addressed with a better understanding of the factors influencing the A3 of food products throughout the supply chain. In addition, the findings demonstrate the potential of understanding behaviour as a way of expanding awareness of the internal/external drivers affecting obesity. The findings from the literature review and secondary data analysis will complement further research including a survey to identify obesity trends and factors influencing poor nutrition in Mexican households. Outputs from the research will be compiled to develop scenarios that will analyse future threats and opportunities associated with changing diets and nutritional values in Mexico to support effective decision-making.

Emotional appraisal research has demonstrated that recalling a past behavior and its associated emotions can influence future behavior. However, how such recalled emotions shape sustainable consumer choice has not been examined. This study examines the role of recalled pride and guilt in shaping sustainable purchase intentions and the mediating role of anticipated pride and guilt. A conceptual model is proposed for motivating sustainable purchase intentions through the emotions associated with the behavioral recall. The model is applied in two experiments with online consumers examining purchase intentions of low carbon cars. Recalling feelings of pride associated with a past sustainability‐related behavior increases sustainable purchase intention, as compared with a neutral recall. This effect occurs through the mediation of both anticipated pride at the prospect of a sustainable behavior choice and anticipated guilt if the future choice is not sustainable. Similar hypotheses relating to recalled guilt at past unsustainable behavior were not supported. The study contributes to research on sustainable consumption, revealing an emotional route by which past behavior can influence future behavior. It also adds to emotional appraisal research by showing the role of specific self‐conscious emotions in forming this route, as prior research has focused more broadly on emotional valence.

Supportive information for the full case study analysis and the DES simulation

This paper presents the development of a circular design tool created from a taxonomy of design strategies related to circular economy aspects that emerged from an extensive literature review. The taxonomy was presented to 10 experts on circular economy and design through a survey to identify an importance factor that could guide product designers to rate different concepts. The taxonomy and their rates are presented in a circular design tool to help product designers to avoid uncertainty of which design concepts meets circular economy aspects. A pair of trainers are used as an example on how the circular design tool can be used. The paper discusses how the chosen design meets the identified circular design aspects and acknowledges that more trials with different product categories are needed to determine further areas of improvement. A larger survey is also suggested to develop a more accurate scoring system when it comes to rate each concept. The paper concludes that more detail guidelines are needed for product designers in their early career, so they can consider design for circular economy. In addition, the final remarks elucidate that future research is needed to cross-reference the circular design aspects with technical aspects of each product, new manufacturing technologies and materials.

This is one of five feasibility studies conducted as part of the RECODE Network

This is a White Paper produced in collaboration between Cisco, Cranfield University and brand consultancy The Clearing. It Builds on research carried out by RECODE-NETWORK identifying and evaluating the opportunities a re-distributed production model offers to disrupt traditional industry models when combined with big data. The results presented are clear recommendations for manufacturers to realise potential of RdM to meet changing consumer needs and help curtail today’s disposable culture.