Industry 4.0 Enabling Technologies Supporting the Social Sphere of Circular Manufacturing

Circular Economy (CE) paradigm may contribute in enhancing the sustainability of the manufacturing sector, and in this context CE takes the name of Circular Manufacturing (CM). The extant literature highlighted the several benefits characterizing this paradigm, but most of the studies aimed at investigating especially those benefits enhancing the environmental and the economic performances of manufacturing companies. Instead, the social sphere has been usually neglected even though it represents one of the main aspects to be considered while moving towards sustainability and circularity. Indeed, CM can be embraced only though the engagement of consumers and the involvement of the whole company, which thus requires the active participation of both users and workers. The social benefits might be reinforced by the introduction of technologies, such as the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) ones, which might support both physically and cognitively the workers and the establishment of the relationships with consumers. Hence, the aim of this contribution is to investigate how I4.0 technologies enable the enhancement of the social benefits obtainable by manufacturing companies while adopting CM. This analysis has been performed through the review of the extant literature which has been conducted relying on both Scopus and Web of Science as scientific databases. 42 selected contributions have been analyzed to identify the specific I4.0 technologies required to enhance the social benefits obtainable from the adoption of CM. From a managerial perspective, this contribution enables to define the key technologies adoptable to enhance the social benefits obtainable from the adoption of CM and to clarify what these benefits are. From a scientific perspective, this contribution enables to cover the envisioned gap about the need to further explore the social benefits obtainable from CM adoption.