Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review
Purpose: Today’s businesses are looking for a circular bioeconomy (CBE) to develop a sustainable manufacturing process as industrial operations result in significant amounts of waste materials and the depletion of natural sources. The industry commonly applies techniques such as lean manufacturing (...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Emerald Publishing
2025
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| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/120415/ |
| _version_ | 1848868182883827712 |
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| author | Abdul Halim-Lim, Sarina Jamaludin, Adi Ainurzaman Islam, A. S.M.Touhidul Weerabahu, Samanthi Priyono, Anjar |
| author_facet | Abdul Halim-Lim, Sarina Jamaludin, Adi Ainurzaman Islam, A. S.M.Touhidul Weerabahu, Samanthi Priyono, Anjar |
| author_sort | Abdul Halim-Lim, Sarina |
| building | UPM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Purpose: Today’s businesses are looking for a circular bioeconomy (CBE) to develop a sustainable manufacturing process as industrial operations result in significant amounts of waste materials and the depletion of natural sources. The industry commonly applies techniques such as lean manufacturing (LM), digital innovations (DI) and green practices (GP) for operational and quality improvement. However, publications explaining how these technologies enable the CBE transition are scarce. This study examines CBE components, common practices of each technology facilitating the CBE transition, problems of solitary technology deployment as well as coupling technologies for the CBE transition. Design/methodology/approach: A scoping review was conducted to analyse previous studies in this new field. The data collection is in a quantitative manner, but the data synthesis process follows a similar method of synthesising data in the grounded theory method, which includes familiarisation with the data, open-coding and finalisation of the themes. Findings: Critical components of CBE were identified as biobased goods, industry symbiosis, material resource efficiency, renewable energy, product lifecycle and sharing economy. GP is the most prominent in moderating the CBE transition. We identify each technology has coupled relationships (Lean-4.0, Green-Lean and Green-4.0) technologies facilitated by the circularity concept, which form the core pillars of enablers and advance the CBE paradigm. Research limitations/implications: This study demonstrates that combining lean principles with green technology and digital technologies can effectively decrease waste and resource usage in biobased manufacturing processes, therefore endorsing the concept of resource efficiency in circular bioeconomy models. Practical implications: The results allow entrepreneurs to strategically incorporate different existing technologies to meet CBE fundamental objectives by initiating it with dual technologies and facilitate industry professionals and regulators to support the improvement of environmental sustainability performance in the manufacturing industry. The management will be able to focus on the common practices across the technologies, which have a dual benefit for both operational and environmental performance. Originality/value: The paper makes the first attempt to present the synergic impact of the three quality management technologies on a new concept of sustainability, CBE. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T14:48:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | upm-120415 |
| institution | Universiti Putra Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T14:48:20Z |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Emerald Publishing |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | upm-1204152025-10-01T03:25:04Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/120415/ Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review Abdul Halim-Lim, Sarina Jamaludin, Adi Ainurzaman Islam, A. S.M.Touhidul Weerabahu, Samanthi Priyono, Anjar Purpose: Today’s businesses are looking for a circular bioeconomy (CBE) to develop a sustainable manufacturing process as industrial operations result in significant amounts of waste materials and the depletion of natural sources. The industry commonly applies techniques such as lean manufacturing (LM), digital innovations (DI) and green practices (GP) for operational and quality improvement. However, publications explaining how these technologies enable the CBE transition are scarce. This study examines CBE components, common practices of each technology facilitating the CBE transition, problems of solitary technology deployment as well as coupling technologies for the CBE transition. Design/methodology/approach: A scoping review was conducted to analyse previous studies in this new field. The data collection is in a quantitative manner, but the data synthesis process follows a similar method of synthesising data in the grounded theory method, which includes familiarisation with the data, open-coding and finalisation of the themes. Findings: Critical components of CBE were identified as biobased goods, industry symbiosis, material resource efficiency, renewable energy, product lifecycle and sharing economy. GP is the most prominent in moderating the CBE transition. We identify each technology has coupled relationships (Lean-4.0, Green-Lean and Green-4.0) technologies facilitated by the circularity concept, which form the core pillars of enablers and advance the CBE paradigm. Research limitations/implications: This study demonstrates that combining lean principles with green technology and digital technologies can effectively decrease waste and resource usage in biobased manufacturing processes, therefore endorsing the concept of resource efficiency in circular bioeconomy models. Practical implications: The results allow entrepreneurs to strategically incorporate different existing technologies to meet CBE fundamental objectives by initiating it with dual technologies and facilitate industry professionals and regulators to support the improvement of environmental sustainability performance in the manufacturing industry. The management will be able to focus on the common practices across the technologies, which have a dual benefit for both operational and environmental performance. Originality/value: The paper makes the first attempt to present the synergic impact of the three quality management technologies on a new concept of sustainability, CBE. Emerald Publishing 2025 Article PeerReviewed Abdul Halim-Lim, Sarina and Jamaludin, Adi Ainurzaman and Islam, A. S.M.Touhidul and Weerabahu, Samanthi and Priyono, Anjar (2025) Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review. Management of Environmental Quality, 36 (1). pp. 130-154. ISSN 1477-7835; eISSN: 1758-6119 https://www.emerald.com/meq/article/36/1/130-154/1243972 10.1108/meq-11-2023-0386 |
| spellingShingle | Abdul Halim-Lim, Sarina Jamaludin, Adi Ainurzaman Islam, A. S.M.Touhidul Weerabahu, Samanthi Priyono, Anjar Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review |
| title | Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review |
| title_full | Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review |
| title_fullStr | Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review |
| title_short | Unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review |
| title_sort | unlocking potential for a circular bioeconomy transition through digital innovation, lean manufacturing and green practices: a review |
| url | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/120415/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/120415/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/120415/ |