Enterprise modeling for the circular economy: meta-model and method component to support manufacturing enterprises

Abstract The circular economy (CE) is an economic philosophy aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources. It emphasizes designing products for longevity, reuse, and recycling to create a closed-loop system. One of the goals of enterprise modeling (EM) is to support enterprises in change processes from the current situation into a desired future state. In the context of the transition to the CE, the question arises if and how EM methods and languages must be adapted for the CE. The main contributions of this work are a better understanding of the challenges manufacturing enterprises face when preparing their product architectures for the CE, a meta-model preparing the product perspective in EM methods for CE, a QFD-based method component guiding the translation of CE goals to product properties and modules, and an investigation of what changes are required in EM methods. The work uses real-world case studies to motivate the research, identify requirements, and evaluate the findings.