The Circular Economy vs. Industrial Automation.

Although it is a simple concept at heart, genuinely adopting a circular economy would be difficult to achieve overnight. It requires a change of mindset towards how we can be more sustainable, which must be present at every level within a business. On a general view, those who adopt the circular economy will design products and services in such a way that: 

By adopting the principles of the circular economy, businesses can reduce their reliance on using and disposing of the world’s natural resources. Materials “looping around” may carry lower cost structures than those extracted and processed from the source, which can mean that cost incentives line up alongside environmental goals. And that can allow industrial firms that have traditionally been focused on throughput and uptime to a more balanced view where the plan reflects the mix of targets. One of the primary environmental issues that the circular economy is tackling today is recyclability. 

Recyclability is the process of retaining the highest value of products at the end of their life, enabling their recycling into high-end applications. It is also what you might call as ‘end-of-pipe’, while a circular economy’s ‘upstream’ solutions address potential problems right at the source.  

“In a properly built circular economy, one should rather focus on avoiding the recycling stage at all costs. It may sound straightforward but preventing waste from being created in the first place is the only realistic strategy” – World Economic Forum. 

It is common for manufacturers to partner with end-of-life resource management companies during the design phase to integrate the appropriate features to facilitate end-of-life handling.  

Novotek are an advanced industrial IT and automation solutions company that provides world-class hardware and software to a range of manufacturing, process, and production sectors. Within their wide portfolio, they offer products that fulfil manufacturers’ needs for greater visibility through a broader circular loop. One product that stands out is the Proficy Plant Applications software, which interacts with inventory and supply chains as well as ERP so that the condition under which something is processed in a factory is easier to share, as is the provenance of the materials used.

Furthermore, Proficy Plant Applications can monitor the ability to track and trace in relation to having detailed data about the processes, conditions, and quality of materials going through the full loop.  

AI Transformation in Manufacturing with Novotek, AWS, and Kearney

Novotek, in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Kearney, is driving AI transformation in manufacturing. At Smart Factory Expo, our experts are demonstrating how our innovative solutions bring clarity, speed, and tangible results to manufacturing processes. This collaboration leverages the capabilities of GE Vernova Plant Applications and AWS to offer cutting-edge AI technology that can revolutionise operations.

AWS provides robust cloud infrastructure, scalable storage solutions, and powerful computing resources that support advanced analytics and machine learning applications. By integrating these capabilities with GE Vernova Plant Applications, manufacturers gain enhanced data analytics, predictive maintenance, and process optimisation tools.

This partnership offers a fantastic opportunity to see firsthand how AI technology can transform manufacturing operations, providing actionable insights, improving efficiency, and reducing waste.

For instance, if a steel manufacturer is running a manufacturing execution system (MES) like Proficy Plant Applications, it provides rock-solid traceability in terms of both the materials that go into the process and quality-related process data that occurs in relation to a specific run. Combined with final product quality data, the steel manufacturer is now able to easily understand (and prove) what process conditions allow them to make the best use of recycled or repurposed materials, which they can share with their customers, too.  

Core sustainability elements are supported in systems capabilities like MES for track and trace, and quality management alongside Proficy Historian for gathering and sharing very detailed process data. And then, if we think about dealing with the variability that comes as a product or a material that goes through multiple lifetimes, that’s where an analytics tool like Proficy CSense can help determine the best way to adjust processes and recipes.  

Although in its relative infancy, regulation in support of the circular economy is coming. Politicians, stakeholders, and businesses will need to adapt as global political momentum gathers around climate change and related challenges such as marine plastic pollution and long-term waste disposal. Those who have already taken steps in this direction will benefit the most. Companies are already shaping themselves around capitalizing on the circular economy. There is still time for less sustainability-minded companies to take the necessary steps to adapt their business models to position themselves within the circular economy.  

Novotek primarily sees its role as enabling industrial businesses to become more efficient. This enablement inevitably reduces waste and consumes less raw materials. But the circular economy is more than that; it is also about recycling and reusing to move towards a close-loop system.