Refining Circulation Factories: Classification Scheme and Supporting Product and Factory Features for Closed-Loop Production Integration

A Circulation Factory is a concept for a future closed-loop production system that combines product manufacturing with remanufacturing and recycling into one hybrid system for increased environmental and economic performance. So far, Circulation Factories have remained a vision. In the present paper, the initial framework for Circulation Factories is revisited and refined by analyzing real world production systems, which are already closing the loop partially. This way, a classification scheme for closed-loop production integration, and a list of product and factory features, which support closed-loop integration, are derived. The feature list is used to analyze if under current conditions the high impact case of Li-Ion batteries is a suitable scope of application for Circulation Factories.