Fraunhofer Institut für Fabrikbetrieb und -automatisierung IFF
The transition to a Circular Economy (CE) in the context of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) requires the transformation of conventional manufacturing processes into sustainable, closed-loop systems. The shift towards increasingly autonomous and decentralised manufacturing networks necessitates secure, standardised, and interoperable technological solutions and mechanisms for handling industrial data to enhance transparency, efficiency, automation, and traceability. Digital representations of physical products, assets, and systems, namely Digital Twins (DTs), have the potential to enable simulation, monitoring, and optimisation of a product´s lifespan, and hence, play a fundamental role in data-driven lifecycle management. Furthermore, Data Spaces (DS) represent another pioneering solution that offers a decentralised approach to maximise secure end-to-end multi-stakeholder information flow throughout the entire value chain. With the increasing awareness of data as a key enabler of competitive advantage, the interplay of DTs and DS in the context of I4.0 and CE cannot be fully leveraged without the corresponding business models that support secure, standardised, and interoperable data exchange. Few initial attempts have started to adopt a value creation perspective to address the integration of DTs and DS. However, further research that integrates a circular value creation perspective would be advantageous. Therefore, this study employs a structured literature review method with the goal to contribute to theory and practice by elaborating on the interface research in DTs and DS by asking the following research question: “How can Digital Twins and Data Spaces interact to create value within the transition towards a Circular Economy in the manufacturing industry?”.
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Abstract
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