Transforming from Linear to Circular: Proposing the Refurbish Business Model for the Automation Industry – Applying LCA

The main aim of this dissertation was to analyse the environmental impact made by the production of the robotic cell with JTA connection as a case study and how refurbishment can be used as a tool to mitigate the climatic impact from the production operation. JTA Connection is a Finnish company involved in designing automation products for other companies, and robotic cell is one of their main products. Life cycle assessment was used as a key method to quantify the cli-mate impact in terms of carbon emissions. The methodology was completed in two parts. The first phase was to measure the impact of the current manufacturing operations at the JTA connection by using the quantity of materials specified in the bill of materials provided by the company, and then creating an input table in OpenLCA to measure the impact of each material. Hence, in the first phase, printed wiring boards or electronics were the biggest contributor with 52555 kg CO2-Eq out of 69342 kg CO2-Eq is calculated from the entire process. The second phase involved using assumptions regarding refurbishment, since the JTA connection does not have an active refurbishment plan. The new quantities were calculated based on the assumptions, and again, the input table was created in OpenLCA to measure the impact. Thus, with the implementation of refurbishment, the total carbon footprint dropped to 36065 kg CO2-Eq, a re-duction by 47%. Moreover, electronics was also the major contributor in the refurbishment process with 31533 kg CO2-Eq.