Design of collection strategies for neodymium magnets present in end-of-life wind turbines and electric vehicles in the European Union

The demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and wind turbines have been rising significantly in the EU as the EU wants to become carbon neutral by 2050 and generate 40% of its energy through renewable sources in order to avoid climate change and its consequences. However, both these technologies use several critical raw materials essential for their...

Accelerating the transition to Circular Economy: The development of a CE visibility evaluation framework for blockchain-enabled data pipeline solutions

Humanity faces the challenge of dealing with resource exhaustion and environmental destruction. The root of these issues lies in the linear economic model established after the industrial revolution. This model relies on two fundamental principles, limitlessness and easily accessible resources and unlimited earth regenerative capacity. The...

Simulating order fulfillment for aircraft line replaceable unit strategy: A case study at KLM component services

Aircraft LRU (Line Replaceable Unit) MROs (Maintenance, Repair Organization) struggle to meet service levels. To stay competitive, literature describes two strategies; increasing contracted fleet size and not reaching projected repair turn around times. Besides these two strategies, literature does not describe the use of triple echelon order...

Incorporating design for remanufacturing in the early design stage: a design management perspective

Adopting design approaches that allow products to last multiple use-cycles supports European Commission objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce primary material impacts. Remanufacturing is an example of an appropriate circular strategy and it can be applied in a variety of industries that are intensive materials users....

Finding the Value Gap of Waste Streams: A Closing the Loop approach

Circular Economy in the building sector: Three cases and a collaboration tool

The Circular Economy (CE) gained significant traction in business and academia. While in the building sector issues around energy efficiency are being widely explored, CE is still a relatively new topic. This article reports on three CE pilots in the Dutch building sector and develops a collaboration tool for developing and operating circular...

Developing the Closed-loop Supply Chain in the Asphalt Industry: A Case Study at BAM Wegen

BAM Wegen, a contractor specialized in road construction and maintenance and (partial) owner of eight asphalt factories in the Netherlands, indicated to have efficiency problems with their reverse logistics activities; all activities needed to reclaim used asphalt. This research therefore aimed at finding a method to better control the supply...

Functions of reuse and recycling in the service economy

The present paper aims at communicating the business world the vision of sustainable competitiveness entailing the adoption of the new business models of producing, selling and maintaining performance over time. These models include strategies that can head firms in designing and producing goods that facilitate the efficient use of resources...

Maintaining the management of maintenance logistics: Detecting and analyzing process instability in a closed-loop supply chain

KLM’s Components Services is responsible for availability of repairable aircraft components for KLM and third party airliners; on behalf of planned and unplanned maintenance. Repairable aircraft components are interchangeable. Hence the realization of components availability includes monitoring components flowing through a continuous cycle that...