2023

Rantala, Tuija; Saari, Leila; Jurmu, Marko; Behm, Katri; Heikkilä, Jouko; Jokinen, Antero; Palmgren, Rosa; Paronen, Essi; Rainio, Kari; Valtanen, Kristiina; Vierimaa, Matias; Ylikerälä, Markus

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.<br/>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.<br/>