Enabling cross-sectorial, circular economy transition in SME via digital platform integrated operational services

Abstract

Circular Economy (CE) is an emerging paradigm aiming at establishing a new sustainable development path by decoupling economic growth and resource consumption. The main limitation in current production models is that manufacturing and de-and remanufacturing operations are carried out independently and without sharing information and economic benefits. This can be overcome by rethinking the current European industrial system into new collaborative and sustainable value networks. New business cases can be generated also for individual Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) by taking advantage of the connection with the Industry 4.0 opportunities and by building on cross-sectorial markets and the potential of digital solutions. The operational services (DOS) presented in this paper are the key part of a novel digital platform called DigiPrime, whose aim is to provide SME with a federated service infrastructure that help overcome the current information asymmetry and explore the possibility to access and transit towards a CE cross-sectorial value-chain. The manuscript presents a selection of DOS considered fundamental for an SME in such a process, through a relevant exploitation use-case scenario. The combination of such DOS has been validated within the project for the case of an electric car repair-shop network and the preliminary outcome of their integration process is also outlined.