Digital twins for information-sharing in remanufacturing supply chain: A review

Abstract

Information asymmetries are the main challenge restricting the development of close-loop supply chains. As a potential solution, digital twins are expected to promote this development by integrating them with dynamic information. This article analyses current research on remanufacturing supply chains and digital twins, and discusses the potential usefulness, challenges and solutions of using digital twins in remanufacturing supply chains. We conduct a systematic literature review to answer two research questions: 1) whether the information asymmetry in the current remanufacturing supply chain has been resolved; and 2) whether digital twins have a positive impact in solving problems with information asymmetries in remanufacturing supply chains. By analysing 288 articles, we find that, first, this problem remains to be solved, there being two research gaps in particular. Secondly, we find that the digital-twin applications are conducive to solving this problem. In addition, this article discusses the potential challenges to this application and proposes four future research directions. The article not only summarizes the research related to remanufacturing supply chains and digital twins theoretically, it also provides support for digital-twin applications in the remanufacturing industry.