A review of data driven approaches for circular economy in manufacturing

Abstract

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.