On the development of a smart architecture for a sustainable manufacturing-remanufacturing system: A literature review approach

Abstract

Remanufacturing is a circular manufacturing (CM) strategy that emerges as a sustainable manufacturing approach to recover the value of end-of-life products. It is a challenging process that requires to overcome intrinsic remanufacturing barriers or challenges, while addressing sustainability concerns, and achieving business model (BM) objectives. The lack of product life cycle information (PLCI) is the main source of these issues, generating significant inefficiencies and negative impacts in CM operations. Smart and industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies have the ability to recover, process, and analyze PLCI. In fact, research is ongoing and suggested approaches are focused on implementing CM strategies using I4.0 to address reverse logistic issues, and to develop new BMs for CM. However, questions remain about on how to structure and configure these technologies as a smart architecture (SA) that simultaneously addresses: 1) remanufacturing barriers and challenges; 2) sustainability; and 3) BMs in the context of CM. The present study addresses this question by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) to discuss current approaches, identify challenges and opportunities, and to improve understanding of SAs for CM strategies. Based on these SLR findings, this study proposes a novel conceptual design of a SA for a sustainable manufacturing-remanufacturing system towards Industry 5.0. As well, the proposed SA covers novel elements, such as a sustainable stakeholders focus, a modular customizable structure integrated in BM, and a blockchain quality and remanufacturability certificate, that are typically omitted or only partially considered by other studies. Finally, a case study based on an electric motor is used to illustrate the relevance, capabilities, and utilization of the proposed architecture.