Concept for Product Architecture Evolution Planning in the Context of Circular Economy

The linear economic model of the manufacturing industry requires a fundamental shift towards a circular economy. The extension of product lifespans through value-adding upgrades serves to conserve resources and promote sustainability. However, the product architecture may constrain the potential for value enhancements through product upgrades. This necessitates the evaluation of whether novel features can still be integrated into the existing product architecture rather than a new product generation. A conceptual framework is employed to facilitate decisionmaking in the evolution planning of circular product architectures, which weighs the upgrade’s development and reassembly effort against its added-value and the architecture’s future viability.