The course covers the fundamentals of circular economy as well as the concept circular manufacturing systems (CMS) and the framework for its implementation. The student will be introduced to the four enabling pillars of CMS, i.e. business model, product design, supply chain and information and communication technology (ICT). The course also covers management (strategic and operational) and technical aspects including the modelling techniques to capture the systemic and systematic dependencies between the four pillars and can be used to assess the economic and environmental performance of a perceived CMS. Practical examples of successful CMS implementation  strategies are also covered in the course.

After passing the course, the student should be able to:

1. Account for circular manufacturing systems (CMS) as an emerging field in study and research
2. Describe the fundamentals of the four pillars of CMS implementation, namely business model, product design, supply chain and information and communication technology (ICT)
3. Describe systematic and systemic perspectives on CMS implementation in the manufacturing industry
4. Describe how businesses can be transformed strategically and be able to develop strategies for a transition from a linear to a circular system

1. Lectures
2. Seminars
3. Reading preselected materials
4. Active discussions
5. Peer review 
6. Quiz
7. Group work
8. Presentation
9. Report writing

Read all the preselected materials as early as possible but before the quiz.

CMS framework

1. Boulding, Kenneth E. "The economics of the coming spaceship earth." New York(1966).
2. Rashid, A; Roci, M.; Asif, Farazee M. A. (2020). Circular Manufacturing Systems, chapter in the Circular Economy Handbook, Edward Elgar Publishing, UK.
3. Rashid, A., Asif, Farazee M. A., Krajnik, P. & Nicolescu, Cornel M. (2013). Resource Conservative Manufacturing: An essential change in business and technology paradigm for sustainable manufacturing." Journal of Cleaner Production, 57, 166–177.
4. Lieder, Michael, and Amir Rashid. "Towards circular economy implementation: a comprehensive review in context of manufacturing industry." Journal of cleaner production115 (2016): 36-51.

Complex Systems Modelling:

1. Amir, S.; Asif, Farazee M. A., Roci, M. (2020). Towards Circular Economy: enhanced decision making in circular manufacturing systems, chapter in the Sustainable Consumption and Production: Circular Economy and Beyond, Palgrave Macmillan, UK.
2. Borshchev, Andrei, and Alexei Filippov. "From system dynamics and discrete event to practical agent based modeling: reasons, techniques, tools." Proceedings of the 22nd international conference of the system dynamics society. 22. Oxfort, 2004.
3. Asif, Farazee M. A.; Lieder, Michael & Rashid, Amir (2016). Multi-method simulation based tool to evaluate economic and environmental performance of circular product systems, Journal of Cleaner Production, 139, 1261-1281.
4. Lieder, M.; Asif, Farazee M. A.& Amir Rashid (2017). Towards Circular Economy Implementation: An agent-based simulation approach for business model changes, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. DOI: 10.1007/s10458-017-9365-9
5. Lieder, M.; Asif, Farazee M.A.; Rashid, A., Mihelič, A. & Kotnik, S. (2017). Towards circular economy implementation in manufacturing systems using a multi-method simulation approach to link design and business strategy, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology  (online)
6. Lieder, M.; Asif, Farazee M.A.; Rashid, A.; Mihelič, A. & Kotnik, S. (2018). A conjoint analysis of circular economy value propositions for consumers: Using “washing machines in Stockholm” as a case study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, 264-273.

Business model

1. Geissdoerfer, Martin, et al. "Circular business models: A review." Journal of Cleaner Production(2020): 123741.
2. Tukker, Arnold. "Product services for a resource-efficient and circular economy–a review." Journal of cleaner production97 (2015): 76-91.
3. Bocken, Nancy MP, et al. "Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy." Journal of industrial and production engineering5 (2016): 308-320.

Product design

1. Asif, Farazee M. A.,  Malvina Roci, Michael Lieder, Amir Rashid, Ales Mihelic, and Mr Simon Kotnik. "A methodological approach to design products for multiple lifecycles in the context of Circular Manufacturing Systems." Journal of Cleaner Production (2021): 126534.

Supply chain

1. González-Sánchez, Rocío, et al. "Main dimensions in the building of the circular supply chain: A literature review." Sustainability6 (2020): 2459.
2. Östlin, Johan, Erik Sundin, and Mats Björkman. "Importance of closed-loop supply chain relationships for product remanufacturing." International Journal of Production Economics 115.2 (2008): 336-348.
3. Geissdoerfer, Martin, et al. "Business models and supply chains for the circular economy." Journal of cleaner production 190 (2018): 712-721.
4. De Angelis, Roberta, Mickey Howard, and Joe Miemczyk. "Supply chain management and the circular economy: towards the circular supply chain." Production Planning & Control6 (2018): 425-437.

ICT

1. Asif, Farazee M.A. et al (2018). A practical ICT framework for transition to circular manufacturing systems, 51st CIRP Conference on Manufacturing Systems, Stockholm, Sweden.

Managing the transition

1. Hopkinson, Peter, et al. "Managing a complex global circular economy business model: opportunities and challenges." California Management Review3 (2018): 71-94.
2. Hofmann, Florian, and Melanie Jaeger‐ "Organizational transition management of circular business model innovations." Business strategy and the environment29.6 (2020): 2770-2788.

All reading materials will be made available upon course strat on CANVAS. 

Students at KTH with a permanent disability can get support during studies from Funka:

Funka - compensatory support for students with disabilities

A, B, C, D, E, FX, F

• KONA - Quiz, 1.5 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PROA - Project assignment, 4.0 credits, Grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
• SEMA - Seminars, 0.5 credits, Grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

Partial exam ( KON1 )

Project assignment ( PRO1 )

Seminars ( SEM1 )

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.