Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) have since the introduction almost two decades ago been recognized as the future of manufacturing. In line with a rapidly increasing customer demand for mass customization, RMS have been found to be a solution for managing frequent product introductions whilst keeping a high production efficiency. However, in recent years the focus has partly shifted from producing solely from an economic standpoint towards establishing a triple bottom line of sustainability, i.e., taking economic, social and environmental perspectives into consideration. Some authors have found RMS as an enabler for sustainable manufacturing, however, this needs further investigation. This paper aims through a literature review at describing and summarizing the hitherto conducted research on RMS and sustainability. A literature review in the database Scopus was carried out and a total of 265 papers were initially reviewed. Two categorizations of prominent papers were carried out: an initial categorization and a categorization according to the triple bottom line of sustainability. Based on these categorizations, the hitherto conducted research on RMS and sustainability was described. Several frequently discussed sustainability factors were identified, as well as suggestions of future research.

In line with the accelerating global warming crisis, the concept of circular economy (CE), wherein the utilization and lifetimes of resources and materials are maximised, has gained a significant increase in attention. For manufacturing companies, adapting to a CE is particularly important due to high CO2-e emissions. In order to increase the knowledge regarding how manufacturing companies have adapted to a CE, sustainability reports wherein the companies themselves report upon their circularity practices can be examined. This study has aimed at investigating the publicly available sustainability reports of the 20 largest manufacturing companies in Sweden, with the purpose of identifying which, and on what level of implementation, circularity practices are mentioned. The 10R framework was used as a foundation for categorizing and analysing the identified circularity practices. The findings in this study include a total of 38 unique circularity practices, whereas 13 are categorized as visioned or planned, and 36 are categorized as ongoing or already realised circularity practices. The circularity practices were primarily related to reducing, reusing, and recycling. Suggestions of further research include elaborately describing the circularity practices as well as further exploring the implementation of repairing, refurbishing and remanufacturing amongst manufacturing companies.

Manufacturing companies must significantly reduce their negative environmental impact, while simultaneously needing to be capable of managing changing customer requirements and increasingly fluctuating volume demands. These constraints require discontinuing developing production systems in line with the outdated and unsustainable linear economy, wherein the system is design and developed for short term production only. In this paper, it is motivated how a production system is distinguished from a product and why state-of-the-art circular economy theory must be adapted to production systems in order to deal with these issues. Furthermore, based on theory and inputs from workshops with participants from the industry, a conceptual framework for circular production system is proposed. In the proposed circular production systems, the principles of circular economy is adapted in order to maximize resource utilization and prolong the lifetime of the production system. Challenges towards the circular production systems have been identified through workshops and potential solutions described. Lastly, future research directions for further developing the circular production system is presented.

Circularity is most often related to resource usage directly affected by products. However, as manufacturing companies hugely affect global warming, enhancing resource utilization throughout all activities and practices of a manufacturing company is crucial. Not knowing where to start carrying out circularity practices in manufacturing might lead to the neglection of doing so. To aid manufacturing companies in initiating their journey towards circularity and to get a rapid insight into current circularity practices, this paper introduces an industry applicable assessment tool providing insight into the plant’s current state of circularity practices based on rapid plant assessment methodology. The developed rapid circularity assessment consists of 20 theoretically derived questions and 10 categories within key areas of circularity. It has been tested in five Swedish manufacturing companies enabling an iterative development process, as well as validation of questions and categories.