W10

Question 1

Transition from linear to circular

Answer 1

• The transition process for firms meant focusing on ‘eco-efficiency’
• Past association with sustainability owes much to technical remanufacturing, less biological
• Recycling in general was rarely seen as core to business success - this view has now changed

Question 2

circular economy

Answer 2

• An industrial economy that is producing no waste and pollution, by design or intention, and in which material flows are of two types:
  ○ Biological nutrients - designed to re enter the biosphere safely

Technical nutrients - which are designed to circulate at high quality in the production system without entering the biosphere as well as being restorative and regenerative by design

Question 3

rise of the circular economy

Answer 3

Sure the circular economy is only one of several circular business models, but it is gaining increasing attention from leaders around the world

○ A balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems (Ghisellini et al, 2014)

○ Incremental enhancements to linear models

○ A reductionist or ‘do less bad’ approach e.g lean

• Long term objective
  Address both practical and theoretical challenges of circular economy

Question 4

how to implement circular economy (cascade)

Answer 4

CIRCULAR SUPPLY CHAINS

• Cascade means starting with the most appropriate method to recapture product value

○ Start with reuse then repair and only then consider breaking the product down into its compponent parts for full material recycling

Question 5

supply chain analysis

Answer 5

• Can be used as a means of gauging levels of waste, identifying emissions ‘hotspots’ and areas for value recapture
• There are various types of map:
  ○ Process map
  Showing general process related detail within the firm or across several firms

Value stream map
Typically detailed ‘current state’ and ‘future state’ maps
□ Forecast, schedule, inventory, batch size,
Strong links between lean and sustainability

Big picture maps
total supply chain and industry level

Question 6

lean mapping = flexible and versatile

Answer 6

• Lean mapping workshops:
  ○ A collaborative event adapted to engage procurement based and other staff from the organisation on process waste and carbon related issues

○ Based on value stream mapping (rother and shook, 1998)

1. Specify value
2. Identify the value stream
3. Flow
4. Pull
5. Perfection

Question 7

map states

Answer 7

current state - shows processes as they are now (i.e with waste)

future state - shows how a process engineer would design the process flow if starting from scratch

Question 8

lean thinking - analysis

Answer 8

Methodological issues
Does process mapping oversimplify the problems
○ Bringing staff and management together to create action plan is tough

Public and private procurement
○ Lean mapping created benefits for UK public procurement
○ Barriers to implementation is often the managers themselves
Lean creates the link with cost reduction but the longer term is difficult

Question 9

carbon foot printing

Answer 9

• The carbon footprint starts with the supply chain
  ○ The principle of carbon footprinting is to establish total carbon level

○ Mapping tools used include process mapping, also lifecycle analysis (LCA), concerned with quantity of carbon dioxide gas per step

Question 10

mapping and modelling (diagram)

Answer 10

Use soft and hard modelling techniques throughout the project to capture data to understand the barriers and enablers for SMEs adopting CE.

This involved some adoption for ‘hybrid’ modelling methods:
1. soft systems approach - going beyond the firm

Question 11

path to CE maturity (diagram)

Answer 11

• Develop idea of circular economy maturity through cooperation

Emphasis on restoring value to the system not just waste elimination