Exploring the Pairing of Circular Manufacturing Data Categories and Rebound Effect Factors

The adoption of circular economy (CE) strategies is widespread in the manufacturing industry, as it is one of the main contributors to global pollution. CE strategies within the manufacturing industry, such as remanufacturing and cleaner production, are recognised as circular manufacturing (CM). In this context, a conceptual data model has been developed to support manufacturers in their decision-making process for adopting circular strategies. The model incorporates and connects four data categories: product, process, technologies, and management. Despite the potential benefits of implementing CM strategies, these benefits could be undermined by the occurrence of rebound effect (RE). Recently, a CE-RE reference model has been developed to map the existing situation about the occurrence of negative effects during the implementation of CE strategies. However, there is still limited knowledge regarding which specific data should be collected to identify where RE occurs within the CM context. To fill this gap, this study aims to detect and categorise the links among the factors composing the CE-RE reference model with the categories of classes of the CM data model to identify the relevant data that should be collected, employing the Design Research Methodology. The resulting categorisation provides an initial framework useful to set the collection of data in this context, supporting the effective adoption of CE strategies and laying the groundwork for the development of indexes to assess the RE and the impact model.