Circular Economy Strategies for Equipment Lifetime Extension: A Systematic Review

Alessandro Fontana, Andrea Barni, Deborah Leone, Maurizio Spirito, Agata Tringale, Matteo Ferraris, Joao Reis and Gil Goncalves
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Alessandro Fontana: Department of Innovative Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 6928 Manno, Switzerland
Andrea Barni: Department of Innovative Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 6928 Manno, Switzerland
Deborah Leone: Department of Innovative Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 6928 Manno, Switzerland
Maurizio Spirito: International Trends and Opportunities, LINKS Foundation, 10138 Torino, Italy
Agata Tringale: International Trends and Opportunities, LINKS Foundation, 10138 Torino, Italy
Matteo Ferraris: International Trends and Opportunities, LINKS Foundation, 10138 Torino, Italy
Joao Reis: SYSTEC, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Gil Goncalves: SYSTEC, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-28

Abstract: Even if the economy nowadays is still locked into a linear model of production, tighter environmental standards, resource scarcity and changing consumer expectations are forcing organizations to find alternatives to lighten their impacts. The concept of Circular Economy (CE) is to an increasing extent treated as a solution to this series of challenges. That said, the multitude of approaches and definitions around CE and Life Cycle Extension Strategies (LCES) makes it difficult to provide (Small and Medium Enterprise) SMEs with a consistent understanding of the topic. This paper aims at bridging this gap by providing a systematic literature review of the most prominent papers related to the CE and lifetime extension, with a particular focus on the equipment and machinery sector. A taxonomy was used to define and cluster a subset of selected papers to build a homogeneous approach for understanding the multiple strategies used in the industry, and the standards in maintenance and remanufacturing strategies. As a final research step, we also propose a Strategy Characterization Framework (SCF) to build the ground for the selection of the best strategy to be applied for production equipment life cycle extension on several industrial use cases.

Keywords: circular economy strategies; life cycle extension strategies; digitalization in life cycle extension (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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